Nicaragua does it again and declares another 94 opponents traitors

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Nicaraguan government on Wednesday declared 94 opponents and critics “traitors to the homeland,” including writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli, as well as numerous journalists and human rights defenders, whom it has taken nationality and ordered the confiscation of their real estate.

The disposition, announced by the magistrate Ernesto Rodríguez Mejía, of the Court of Appeal of Managua, also concerns 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 people concerned “are declared fugitives from justice” and, in addition to losing their nationality, they will not be able to exercise public office or popular election “in perpetuity”, indicates the resolution read by the judicial officer.

Belli and Ramírez, winner of the 2017 Cervantes Prize for Literature, and most of the people mentioned on the list are opponents of Ortega who are in exile. However, several of those mentioned are in Nicaragua.

Ortega’s surprising disposition comes just six days after the release and exile of 222 imprisoned opponents, who were flown to the United States on a plane provided by the Joe Biden government. All expelled will be stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship, according to reports.

The crimes with which the defendants are charged are “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “spreading false news”, Rodríguez Mejía said. These crimes have been applied to dozens of imprisoned opponents in recent years.

Among the 94 listed are also the Catholic bishop Silvio Báez and the priest Edwin Román, both exiled in Miami, the peasant leader Francisca Ramírez, the former dissident ambassador to the OAS, Arturo McFields, the former Foreign Affairs Minister Norman Caldera and former Vice President of the Supreme Court of Justice Rafael Solís, who left Nicaragua after the 2018 social protests.

The text read by Rodríguez Mejía refers to the confiscation of assets as “the immobilization and confiscation in favor of the State of Nicaragua of all real estate and companies” related to the accused.