Spain has offered to grant citizenship to the 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners whom the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo wanted to make stateless after their release and deportation to the United States. In statements to the Servimedia agency, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares welcomed the release of the majority of Nicaraguan political prisoners and offered to take in “any other prisoner who, at this time, is still in the same situation as those who have just been released”, in Reference to the 23 inmates who remain deprived of their liberty on political grounds.
The most important announcement came later, however, when he added: “The government is offering Spanish citizenship to these 222 released prisoners, given the news that procedures have begun to declare them stateless.” The Spanish minister alluded to the decision of the Spanish government The regime-controlled Nicaraguan assembly proposed amending the constitution to strip the freedmen of their citizenship, calling them traitors.
According to the head of Spanish diplomacy, citizenship would be granted by a “charter of nature”. This is an exceptional procedure whereby the Council of Ministers, depending on the circumstances and merits of the petitioner, can grant Spanish nationality to a foreigner by approving a Royal Decree and no prior file is required.
“The offer is already in effect, so to speak,” the minister stressed, adding that his department would be in touch with those concerned and that the naturalization process would be “very short” in order to “prevent them from becoming stateless”.
According to diplomatic sources, Spain’s foreign ministry has coordinated on the matter with the foreign ministry, whose head Antony Blinken described the release of Nicaraguan political prisoners as a “constructive step”. He has also contacted some of the exiles who, if they want to obtain Spanish citizenship, have to apply for it. The operation is coordinated by the Spanish Consulate General in Washington.
The Nicaraguan regime surprised last Thursday with the release of 222 of the 245 political prisoners and their immediate deportation to Washington. Among the freed and exiles are prominent opponents, journalists and even former Sandinista leaders, such as Dora María Téllez, the mythical Commander Two of the Revolution, the brothers Cristina and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, sons of the director of La Prensa newspaper, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, in 1978 assassinated by the Somoza regime; Juan Sebastián Chamorro, nephew of the former; or Juan Lorenzo Holmann, manager of the newspaper La Prensa. On the other hand, Bishop Rolando Álvarez refuses to leave the country, which has led him to move from house arrest to an inmate of El Chipote prison.
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Closed diplomatic crisis between Spain and Nicaragua
The offer of Spanish citizenship to the released political prisoners comes 48 hours after the new Spanish ambassador to Managua, María Pilar Terrén Lalana, presented Ortega with her credentials, ending a diplomatic crisis that began in August 2021 when Spain He called his Predecessor María an del Mar Fernández-Palacios to consultations, which the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to return.
In the United States, where the deportees landed this Thursday, news spread that 222 political prisoners released from Nicaragua were granted Spanish citizenship over breakfast at a hotel near Dulles Airport, 40 minutes from Washington. like wildfire from cellphone to cellphone, where the State Department has decided to welcome her in the first days of her new life in freedom. Everyone celebrated the Spanish government’s decision.
Óscar René Vargas, who was a shadow of Daniel Ortega until he stopped being one and ended up in prison last year, asked the EL PAÍS reporter: “Please find out the details so that we can fully understand Spain’s gesture. Vargas has family in the United States, California and Florida, but prefers to live in Europe, he explained.
Irving Lario wants the same thing, a future on the old continent. “The news from Madrid filled us with joy. Now we must fill the gaps in how to do it effectively.” It surprised no one at the exile’s Washington hotel. “We know that the Spanish government has always been very close to the Nicaraguan people.”
For her part, US Assistant Secretary of State Emily Mendrala said in a telephone press conference in Washington on Friday that the US government is in contact with Spain and other countries if they take in some of the political prisoners. Mendrala explained that every case is different and that expatriate preferences are taken into account as much as possible. He has also insisted that the Joe Biden administration provide legal advice to released political prisoners so they can decide which option is most convenient for them.
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