Writer Gioconda Belli accepts Chilean nationality

SANTIAGO (AP) — Writer Gioconda Belli will accept Chilean citizenship offered by the South American government after being stripped of her Nicaraguan citizenship by Daniel Ortega’s government, the Chilean Foreign Ministry reported Thursday.

Despite the sad circumstances, “it is an honor that this wonderful Nicaraguan poet, writer and feminist agrees to be Chilean,” Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola posted on Twitter with a photo where she is seen talking to the phone and added “excited to talk”. this morning with my dear friend Belli.

The Chancellor thus officially confirmed the news that Belli herself had given to Radio Cooperativa, declaring that “I have many friends and people that I love in Chile and that is why I am going to take Chilean nationality. If there is another country that I wholeheartedly feel so close to, it is Chile”.

The writer thanked President Gabriel Boric and Urrejola for Chilean nationality.

“Today I can say that Chilean solidarity has embraced us Nicaraguans who have been stripped of our nationality and everything we owned in Nicaragua,” Belli said.

He added that “Chile has a deep connection with Nicaragua, from Rubén Darío to Pablo Neruda, Nicanor Parra, Marcela Serrano, Carla Guelfenbein”. We Nicaraguans will continue to fight “for democracy, for freedom, we will not be intimidated and we will continue to dream of a free country”, he added.

A week ago, Ortega declared 94 opponents and critics “traitors to the fatherland”, including writers Sergio Ramírez and Belli, as well as journalists and human rights defenders, who withdrew their nationality and ordered the confiscation of their real estate. .

The event came just 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.

The Chilean Foreign Ministry reported Thursday on the procedures that Nicaraguan expats can request.

The decision aims to allow “Nicaraguan people deprived of their nationality by decision of the State” to benefit from international protection.

These people could opt for refugee status by applying to the National Migration Service once in national territory or request political asylum in a diplomatic mission abroad or in Chilean territory, said the Minister of Affairs. Foreign Urrejola.

He added that the government has contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to explore alternatives to accompany this organization in the implementation of this decision by the Chilean government. He also signaled that the power to use the pardon mechanism will be debated in Congress.

As a Chilean State, “we are committed to the defense of democracy, human rights and solidarity between peoples”, concluded the Chancellor in an audiovisual message sent to the media.

For the moment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not indicated whether more Nicaraguans have chosen to accept Chilean nationality.

The day before, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also maintained that Nicaraguans “have the doors open” to ask for “asylum, nationality, whatever they want”.

Likewise, the government of Gustavo Petro offered Colombian nationality to the writer Ramírez, former Vice President of Nicaragua in the 1980s. According to statements by Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva, Ramírez accepted the Colombian offer.