Act Daily News
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Spain will provide a path to citizenship for 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners who had been just lately launched from jail and lots of of whom had been despatched to the United States on Thursday, a spokesman for Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Act Daily News.
The spokesman didn’t instantly reply to a Act Daily News query concerning the small print of the provide, together with how rapidly they might obtain citizenship. The spokesman spoke on the situation of anonymity, citing native skilled norms.
Questions have mounted on the destiny of the greater than 200 new arrivals to the US, who had been additionally stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship on Thursday.
Their launch adopted years of repression by the Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega. The authoritarian chief has jailed dozens of opposition figures and activists, notably within the lead as much as the final elections in November of 2021.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price mentioned Thursday that the people, who all flew to Dulles International airport in Washington, can be granted humanitarian parole for 2 years, permitting them to stay US and giving them the time to use for asylum if they need.
Each of the people who left Nicaragua “voluntarily consented to travel,” and “there were two individuals who, on their own volition, chose not to travel to the United States,” Price mentioned.
Among the launched prisoners is one American, in line with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who welcomed their transfer, calling it a product of American diplomacy.
Ortega on Thursday mentioned their launch was not negotiated with Washington. “We just wanted them to go,” Ortega mentioned.
After calling the discharge of the prisoners “a message for peace and stability for Nicaragua,” the 77-year-old chief mentioned the unique record of these to be launched contained 228 names, however the US had vetoed at the least 4 prisoners as a result of they’d been convicted of widespread crimes.
Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a high-profile member of the Catholic Church who has lengthy opposed the Ortega regime and was detained in August 2022, was additionally because of be launched, however he refused, Ortega mentioned. Instead, 11 members of the clergy had been launched on Thursday morning.
The political prisoners had been greeted by US officers, activists and members of the Nicaraguan diaspora at Dulles airport.
One of the arrivals was political activist Felix Maradiaga, who informed Act Daily News en Espanol that they solely realized what was taking place when by the aircraft.
“They made us sign some documents saying in one single line that we were leaving the country of our free will with no further explanation,” he mentioned. “On one side what happened is shocking, but on the other, I’m overwhelmed by this moment, the opportunity to hug our family. Personally, I haven’t seen my daughter in more than three years.”
Source: www.cnn.com