Exiled Nicaraguan political prisoners speak out: Video
On September 5, 2024, 135 political prisoners were released from Nicaraguan prisons and transported to Guatemala.
This mass release followed months of international pressure on President Daniel Ortega's government, which has been criticised for its increasingly authoritarian practices.
The freed prisoners, however, were stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship on Tuesday, September 10, a move that has drawn widespread condemnation from human rights organisations.
For many of these former prisoners, exile represents both a relief and a new set of challenges. Despite these realities, they are determined to rebuild their lives and continue their fight for justice.
One former prisoner, Jared Ramirez, a 35-year-old musician, described his experience as a "giant prison" where fear and repression were constant companions. Now in Guatemala, he and others like him are finding ways to adapt and support each other in their new environment.
"Mixed feelings but on the one hand [I am] very happy with the way we were received. We felt very warmly welcomed by Guatemala. And at the same time, the other feeling [is] bittersweet [because] we were exiled from our homeland which we cannot return to," 28-year-old Vink Laguna detailed.
Vink in an interview with AFP was. however, quick to acknowledge his freedom: "We are in the process of seeing what happens and of course and as I said before with mixed feelings but I feel like a lion because I am now free and I am no longer afraid of anything."
A court in Managua announced that the 135 exiled prisoners would be stripped of their citizenship following their convictions "of criminal acts that threaten the sovereignty, independence and self-determination of the Nicaraguan people."
According to official data compiled by AFP, the ruling has increased the total number of exiled opposition members who have lost their citizenship since the start of 2023 to 451.
