- Writing
- BBC News World
image source, EPA-EFE
Daniel Ortega shows the list of the 222 opponents released from prison and “deported” to Washington.
The process, which involved the government, the judiciary and the legislature, was simultaneous and carried out in a flash.
There was a judicial decision to release 222 Nicaraguan opponents from prison and “deport” them to the United States; a government agreement for Washington to receive them; and a reform in the National Assembly (Parliament) to strip them of their nationality.
The opponents, who had been imprisoned in the country, were released following the judicial authorities made public the sentence that decreed his “immediate deportation”.
They were accused of “committing acts that undermine the independence, sovereignty, and self-determination of the people; for inciting violence, terrorism, and economic destabilization.”
They were declared “traitors to the homeland” and it was announced that they were “perpetually disqualified from exercising public office” as well as from holding elected positions.
Shortly following, while the opponents were traveling to Washington, the National Assembly -controlled by the ruling party- approved the reform to strip them of their nationality.
On Thursday, Ortega declared on national television that there was no “negotiation” with the US for the release of the prisoners and that they did not ask Washington for anything in exchange for receiving them.
image source, Archyde.com
Nicaragua lives a deep political crisis since 2018, when there was a great wave of protests once morest the government of Daniel Ortega that was harshly repressed by the authorities.
The situation worsened at the end of 2021 when Ortega was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term in elections considered fraudulent by much of the international community.
The elections were preceded, among other things, by the arrest of dozens of opposition leaders, including the 222 who have now been released.
Many of them were accused by Ortega of trying to organize a coup once morest him.
“express” reform
After having ordered the “deportation” of the opponents on Thursday, the National Assembly began the process to reform the Constitution and legalize the stripping of the nationality of those released.
According to the justification of the reform, the opponents are considered “traitors to the homeland” for the alleged violation of Law 1055: Law for the Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-determination for Peace.
The reform – approved in an “emergency session” with 89 votes, out of a total of 91 – modified article 21 of the Constitution to add a paragraph.
“The acquisition, loss and recovery of nationality will be regulated by law. Traitors to the homeland lose the quality of Nicaraguan national,” reads the text of the amendment.
Minutes later, the Assembly approved the so-called Special Law Regulating the Loss of Nationality Nicaraguan.
This establishes that people sentenced for violating Law 1055 “will lose their nationality.”
image source, Archyde.com
Féliz Maradiaga (right) upon his arrival in Washington.
“Illegalities”
The Organization of American States (OAS) highlighted the release of Nicaraguan opponents but indicated in a statement that “What happened on Thursday is not a liberation.”
“These people were unjustly imprisoned…convicted in unfair trials for alleged ‘treason’…stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality and all their citizenship rights ‘in perpetuity.'”
“The crimes committed once morest these people must not go unpunished and their rights must be restored as soon as possible”says the OAS.
The electoral observatory Urnas Abiertas, affirms that both the “deportation” process of the 222 opponents and the one used to strip their nationality are “totally irregular” acts.
“Once once more the institutionality is used to try to cover an irregular act, contrary to the law, that violates individual and political liberties with legality,” says the agency.
“These types of measures are a further violation of human rights of Nicaraguans, in general. And to electoral integrity, specifically, insofar as it limits civil, political and electoral rights,” he adds.
For its part, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), although it celebrated the release of the opponents, condemned what it said was “the legal abuse that has been committed” with their deportation.
“We warn that deportation is completely inapplicable in this case, because this is an immigration legal figure that is specifically applied to foreigners who have committed crimes in this country, they are calling deportation an exile that is absolutely prohibited in all laws and international human rights standards,” said Centro in a statement .
CENIDH said in a statement that the reform to strip the nationality of opponents es “absurd and illegal”.
The Center recalled that Article 20 of the Nicaraguan Constitution establishes that “no national can be deprived of his nationality. The quality of Nicaraguan national is not lost by the fact of acquiring another nationality.”
He added that the constitutional reform is “hasty and illegal” since, as established by Nicaraguan legislation, it can only remain in force following being approved in the second legislature that begins in January 2024.
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