The U.S. government has confirmed the reception of 222 people «unjustly» imprisoned in Nicaragua «for exercising their fundamental freedoms» and has claimed that this measure «opens the door to greater dialogue» with the Central American country, with which Washington barely maintains relations to date.
It is «a constructive step toward resolving human rights abuses» in Nicaragua, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement, in the first official reaction from the Joe Biden Administration shortly after the plane landed.
U.S. authorities will offer medical and legal assistance to these people, who have arrived at a Washington airport on a charter flight. «What happened today is a result of U.S. diplomacy and we will continue to support the Nicaraguan people,» Blinken pledged.
Later, the U.S. ambassador in Managua, Kevin Sullivan, told the media that the deportation of opponents to the United States is «a unilateral decision» of the regime of Daniel Ortega and has bet to ask the president if he expects to receive something in return.
Questioned about the specific case of those deportees who have family in Spain and want to travel there, Sullivan said that «of course» they could do so, although he did not go into details of how the bureaucratic management would be, since the Nicaraguan government has withdrawn their nationality. «We are in communication with other governments», he concluded.
Hours earlier, the Nicaraguan regime confirmed through a judicial ruling the «immediate» deportation of these 222 people, in an unprecedented release that comes after years of complaints from human rights organizations. Repression in Nicaragua became particularly evident after the 2018 protests and in the months leading up to the 2021 elections.
The Nicaraguan National Assembly has also approved this Thursday a reform of the Constitution by which it agrees that people classified as «traitors to the homeland», a category that would include all dissidents transferred to the United States, will not have the right to nationality.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
