Sullivan asked about the number of deportees and Ortega replied: “Everyone.” Photo: composition LR/El Mundo/Article 66
This Thursday, the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortegapointed out that You are not asking for “anything in return” to the United States regarding the sanctions against officials of its Government after the release and expulsion to the North American country of 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners.
From the Olof Palme convention center in Managua, where he attended protected by the high military and police command, as well as representatives of the other State powers, he celebrated that there are no “coup plotters, terrorists or mercenaries” left in his nation. For Ortega, the deportation was “surprising.”
He recalled that, on different occasions, he had raised this scenario, such as on November 8, 2021, when he called imprisoned opponents “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists” and suggested that “they should be taken to the United States.” United” because, in his opinion, “they stopped being Nicaraguans, they have no homeland,” he said.
On the other hand, he added that it was his wife, the vice president Rosario Murilloconsidered “co-president”, who called the US ambassador in Managua, Kevin Sullivan, to propose that Washington take in political prisoners. The answer was that he was going to consult with the White House and then asked about the total number of deportees, to which Ortega replied that “everyone”, including the Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Álvarez, who in the end did not accept.
Faced with this, Ortega clarified that he is not trying to negotiate and does not expect a positive response from the United States. Furthermore, he revealed that initially there would be 228 deporteesbut the number of political prisoners ended at 222.
The White House He vetoed four of them, including Eliseo de Jesús Castro Baltodano, who had been imprisoned in the United States and later expelled in February 2006 for violence against women. The other three were Walter Antonio Ruiz Rivera, Jaime Enrique Navarrete Blandón and the lawyer José Manuel Urbina Lara. Regarding the remaining two, Bishop Rolando Álvarez and Fanor Alejandro Ramos, also convicted of drug trafficking, refused to travel.
Finally, Daniel Ortega decided to call the deportees as follows: “Victims of imperialist policies, which use them, finance them, arm them, and then send them to find how to destroy the peace of a country, like the one they had been enjoying Nicaragua until April 2018,” he concluded.
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