United States announces the release of 135 Nicaraguan political prisoners

Early Thursday morning, the Nicaraguan regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo released 135 political prisoners and put them on a plane to Guatemala, the U.S. government said in a statement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. “The Biden-Harris Administration today secured the release of 135 unjustly detained political prisoners in Nicaragua, on humanitarian grounds. No one should be put in jail for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights of free expression, association, and practicing their religion,” the press release stated.

Shortly thereafter, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo confirmed the arrival of the political prisoners in Guatemala City. According to Washington, there was no direct negotiation with Nicaragua to obtain their release. But there was pressure from the U.S. Congress to secure the release of 13 pastors from Puertas de la Montaña, an evangelical organization based in Texas. The regime agreed to release them and 122 others. “It was a unilateral decision by them to increase the list,” Sullivan said.

“Our country has shown its firm democratic conviction, which categorically rejects threats of authoritarian regression,” Arévalo said on X. “Today we reaffirm that commitment and give back the international solidarity that we have received so many times, welcoming 135 Nicaraguan brothers, released political prisoners. Only in freedom and democracy do life and humanity flourish. Welcome, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters!”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked the Guatemalan president and his administration “for their efforts and support in welcoming” those persecuted by the Sandinista regime and noted through a statement that “these freed Nicaraguan citizens will now have the opportunity to apply for lawful pathways to resettle to the United States or elsewhere and begin the process of rebuilding their lives.”

The Ortega and Murillo regime has not yet commented on the release. This is not the first time that the United States has mediated for the release of political prisoners. The first major undertaking was Operation Nica Welcome, conducted by a small group from the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Managua on February 9, 2023. On that occasion, 222 political prisoners — among them opposition leaders, presidential pre-candidates, journalists and academics — were sent into exile in the United States, where they were beneficiaries of the Humanitarian Parole program.

While they were traveling on the plane to Dulles International Airport in Washington, on the so-called “freedom flight,” the Sandinista government stripped them all of their Nicaraguan nationality, confiscated their assets, and declared them fugitives from justice. Last January, Managua banished Bishop Rolando Álvarez and the priests and seminarians it had held in prison to Rome after a mediation with the Vatican.

As of Thursday, civil society organizations counted 151 political prisoners in Nicaragua. The identities of the 135 sent to Guatemala are not yet known. The United States only said that the group includes 13 members of the evangelical organization Puerta de la Montaña, “along with lay Catholics, students, and others that Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo consider a threat to their authoritarian government.”

“This is the day we have been praying and believing God for,” said Jon Britton Hancock, founder and president of Puerta de la Montaña, the organization accused by the Ortega-Murillo regime of money laundering as part of their ongoing religious persecution, especially against Catholicism. “Members of Congress, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security worked tirelessly to effect their release from their unjust imprisonment,” he said in quotes reported by The New York Times after the pastors’ release.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition