Freed last week, Nicaragua’s political prisoners fear for the families they left behind
Six days after they were kicked out of their country, some of the 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners freed last week said they were grateful for the warm welcome they have received in the United States, but expressed concern for their families in the Central American country who are now targets of the Daniel Ortega regime.
Speaking at a press conference held by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a group of the former political prisoners said that Ortega has no intentions of ending the crackdown of those opposed to his dictatorship, even after deciding to free most of the estimated 245 political prisoners he had put behind bars.
“They are building more maximum-security prisons, near to the one in which we were held,” said Victor Manuel Sosa Herrera, who had been sentenced to a 10-year term for aiding students who protested against the regime in 2018. “My family is under siege in Nicaragua by the genocidal National Guard that arrives every morning to intimidate” them.
Sosa was sentenced to prison under trumped-up drug charges. His real crime was to provide food and other forms of assistance to protesters, a decision he made after seeing the effects of the regime’s violent crackdown. “He saw when some kids were struck down and that outraged him,” one of his relatives said on a radio interview in 2021. “He saw how the kids were shot and it was then that he decided to help the students with food.”
Declaring them traitors to the fatherland, Ortega unexpectedly freed the 222 political prisoners last Thursday and sent them into exile in the United States. Among them were a number of presidential hopefuls whom he arrested in 2021 so they couldn’t run against him later that year.
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The prisoners had been found guilty by the Managua Court of Appeals of having committed a number of crimes, including plotting against the Nicaraguan state and the Nicaraguan people. Their citizenships were revoked and they were barred from holding public office during their lifetimes.
Their release was hailed as a positive sign by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said that it could become a step to the improvement of relations between Washington and Managua.
“The release of these individuals, one of whom is a U.S. citizen, by the government of Nicaragua marks a constructive step towards addressing human rights abuses in the country and opens the door to further dialogue between the United States and Nicaragua regarding issues of concern,” Blinken said last week.
But the former political prisoners speaking this week said they are not quite sure that the Ortega regime is planning to change its course.
Claiming that the persecution of her family in Nicaragua is intense, former political prisoner Maria José Martinez said that one of her priorities now is finding an organization that could help her get her family out.
Her loved ones, she said, have been turned into pariahs inside Nicaragua, given that authorities have stripped them of their citizenship, just as she was. “They were erased from the records, they no longer exist. I have two children and my husband, which are being heavily persecuted,” she said.
Besides Levine Cava, Doral Councilwoman Maureen Porras, who is of Nicaraguan descent, and former state Senator Annette Taddeo participated in Wednesday’s event.
Levine Cava said the former political prisoners were welcome in South Florida, and called on leaders in Washington to provide Temporary Protected Status to Nicaraguans fleeing from the Ortega regime.
Former political prisoner Yubrank Suazo thanked Levine Cava and other local leaders for the assistance they are providing to the former political prisoners during the “very painful process” of leaving their country behind.
After spending many months in prison, “what has been most difficult for many of us is having to leave our homeland, where our family is. There is where our hearts have remained,” he said.
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 3:05 PM.
