‘I fear for his safety’: Nicaraguan journalist persecuted by Ortega faces deportation from US

The Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano, a critic of Daniel Ortega’s regime who has been exiled since December 21, 2018 in the United States, where he sought asylum, has been detained by immigration authorities and now faces deportation proceedings. Press freedom organizations as well as members of Congress have asked U.S. authorities to consider that Galeano was persecuted in Nicaragua for his work and would face reprisals if returned to that country.

Galeano, 48, was arrested by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Orlando on Monday while working as an Uber driver. The journalist runs a news program called Café con Voz, which he founded in Nicaragua and continues to produce in exile, and has contributed work to U.S. outlets. His wife, Deykell Santamaría, said she has been able to contact him at the Baker detention center in northern Florida and that he asked her to contact an attorney and notify the media.

“I fear for his safety, his freedom and his integrity if he were to be sent to Nicaragua,” Santamaría told EL PAÍS. She added that she fears “he could be sent back into the hands of the same regime he fled to protect his life and his freedom.”

“We respect U.S. immigration laws and trust in due process. All we ask is that his file, the evidence of persecution and his record as an exiled journalist be reviewed,” she added.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told EL PAÍS: “ICE arrested Luis Manuel Chavarría-Galeano, a Nicaraguan national who is unlawfully present in the United States, during routine immigration enforcement operations.” According to the agency, Galeano “entered the country legally on December 21, 2018, with authorization to remain until June 20, 2019. In violation of our nation’s laws, he remained in the country beyond the authorized period. He will remain in ICE custody while his removal proceedings are processed.”

DHS did not answer questions about Galeano’s asylum application, which his wife says is still pending, nor did it clarify whether he would be returned to Nicaragua if deported.

Journalists persecuted in Nicaragua

Galeano has worked as a journalist since the late 1990s, and in 2012 he founded the project Café con Voz, which aired on 100% Noticias, one of the outlets raided by Ortega’s regime during its crackdown on independent media after the 2018 protests. The owner of 100% Noticias, Miguel Mora, and its press director, Lucía Pineda, were arrested.

“Luis narrowly escaped the dictatorship’s prison,” Pineda told EL PAÍS. “He happened to go on vacation the same day the police detained Miguel Mora and me.”

Nicaraguan authorities filed charges against her and Mora, and also against Galeano, Pineda added; she spent six months in prison. “Obviously he could no longer return to Nicaragua, and that is why he sought political asylum in the United States,” she explained.

Pineda noted that at least four journalists from 100% Noticias have been granted asylum in the U.S. “We hope U.S. authorities will take into account all that background of the regime’s fierce persecution,” she said.

Galeano entered the U.S. on the same day as the raid, December 21, and applied for political asylum in 2019, a process that his wife says remains pending seven years later. She added that Galeano has a hearing scheduled before an immigration court on October 2.

The journalist’s detention comes amid a renewed anti-immigrant crackdown by the government of Donald Trump. Immigration authorities detained nearly 51,000 people last month, a record number, including migrants with pending asylum requests and other immigration filings. Many have no criminal records.

Two Republican members of Congress from south Florida who have been consistent critics of Ortega’s regime reacted to the news of Galeano’s arrest. Representative María Elvira Salazar called for a review of the case and said the U.S. government “must always know how to distinguish between a criminal and a political exile.” In a statement posted to her social media, Salazar said Galeano “cannot be sent back into the hands of the people who targeted him,” noting that the Ortega regime forced him into exile and even stripped him of his nationality.

Representative Mario Díaz-Balart also expressed concern and said that “We can and must enforce our immigration laws, while ensuring that those escaping socialist dictatorships are not sent back into the hands of repressive regimes.”

Groups urge against deportation

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA), an advocacy group, said Galeano’s detention “demands a response that takes into account his status as a persecuted and exiled journalist,” warning that a potential deportation “could expose him to the risks that precisely forced him to flee.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for Galeano’s release, saying his detention “fits into a troubling pattern in which the Trump administration has wielded immigration enforcement against members of the press.”

“It is critical that journalists who have sought asylum in the United States after fleeing persecution for their journalistic work are protected, not treated as targets for immigration enforcement,” José Zamora, CPJ’s Americas director, said.

In February 2023, Ortega’s regime included Galeano on a list of 94 opponents whose assets and properties were confiscated and who were stripped of Nicaraguan citizenship. The list included other well-known journalists and writers, such as Sergio Ramírez, Gioconda Belli and Carlos Fernando Chamorro, as well as religious figures and human rights defenders.

“They stole our house. The house is abandoned and in the hands of the Sandinista dictatorship,” Santamaría said. “The United States was the country where my husband sought protection. Our hope is that his story, his evidence and his record will be taken into account.”

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