16.02.2023
Laureate writer Sergio Ramírez, winner of the Cervantes Literature Prize, is on the list along with well-known journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders.
The government of Nicaragua declared on Wednesday (02.15.2023) “traitors to the homeland” to 94 opponents and critics, including writers Sergio Ramirez y Gioconda Bellias well as well-known journalists and human rights defenders, who were stripped of their nationality and ordered to confiscate their real estate.
The provision, announced by magistrate Ernesto Rodríguez Mejía, of the Managua Court of Appeals, also affects the lawyer Vilma Núñez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the ex-guerrilla Mónica Baltodano and her family, and former Sandinista commander Luis Carrión, among many others.
The 94 affected “are declared fugitives from justice” and, in addition to losing their nationality, they will not be able to hold public or popularly elected office “in perpetuity”, indicated the resolution read by the judicial official.
Both Belli and Ramírez, winner of the 2017 Cervantes Literature Prize, and most of those mentioned on the list are opponents of the government of Daniel Ortega who are in exile. However, there are several of those mentioned that are in Nicaragua.
Among the 94 indicated, there are also the Catholic bishop Silvio Báez and the priest Edwin Román, both exiled in Miami, the peasant leader Francisca Ramírez, the dissident former ambassador to the OAS, Arturo McFields, the former foreign minister Norman Caldera and the former vice president of the Supreme Court of Justice Rafael Solís, who left Nicaragua following the social protests of 2018.
The text read by Rodríguez Mejía refers to the confiscation of property as “immobilization and confiscation in favor of the State of Nicaragua of all real estate and companies” linked to the accused.
Ortega’s surprising disposition occurs just six days following the release and exile of 222 imprisoned opponents, They were sent to the United States on a plane provided by the Joe Biden government. All those expelled will be stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality, according to reports.
It also occurs following a sentence of 26 years in prison imposed once morest the bishop of Matagalpa (north), Monsignor Rolando Alvarezthe most critical religious of the Ortega regime, who refused to be exiled along with the political prisoners.
The crimes charged once morest the defendants are “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “propagation of false news,” said Rodríguez Mejía. These crimes have been applied to dozens of imprisoned opponents in recent years.
US condemns measure
The main person in charge of the United States Department of State for Latin America, Brian Nichols, condemned the withdrawal of the nationality of the 94 Nicaraguans.
“We condemn today’s actions by the Nicaraguan government to strip the nationality of 94 other Nicaraguan citizens,” the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs said in a message.
In the statement, Nichols warned that “this deplorable act further distances Nicaraguans from the democracy they deserve.”
Last updated at 07:09 CET.
gs (ap, efe, afp, Confidential, Channel 2)
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