Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has offered Spanish citizenship to the 94 Nicaraguans – including prominent writers, politicians, intellectuals, activists or religious figures – who were stripped of their citizenship by Daniel Ortega’s regime, just as Nicaraguans were stripped of 222 former political prisoners, who were exiled to the United States on the 10th.
Those affected by the measure include the writers Sergio Ramírez, winner of the Cervantes Prize, and Gioconda Belli, both in exile; Nicaraguan journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro; the writer and feminist Sofía Montenegro; activist Azahalea Solís; Bishop Silvio Báez, one of the most critical voices in the Church, and activist Vilma Núñez, President of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (IACHR). Most of them are in exile, but the Ortega-controlled appeals court in Managua has declared them “traitors” and “fugitives” and ordered the confiscation of all their assets in the country.
The head of Spanish diplomacy communicated this himself over the phone to Sergio Ramírez, who had sent a letter to President Pedro Sánchez raising this issue, although he does not need Spanish citizenship since he acquired it in 2018.
In a statement, the State Department confirmed the offer and extended it “to all citizens of Nicaragua who may remain stateless in the future as a result of decisions by Daniel Ortega’s government.”
Spain has already contacted several of the 222 Nicaraguans in exile in the United States to convey the offer and initiate nationalization procedures through the Consulate General in Washington.
Spanish citizenship is granted by the “Charta of Nature”. This is an exceptional procedure whereby the Council of Ministers, based on the circumstances and merits of the petitioner, can grant nationality to a foreigner through the approval of a royal decree and without the need for a prior act, although the party concerned must be present at the relevant request. According to diplomatic sources, the Spanish Foreign Ministry coordinated with the US State Department before taking this step.
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Ortega’s decision to strip Nicaraguan citizenship from critical voices has become a new form of repression and intimidation. Since massive anti-government protests erupted in the capital and other major cities in the country since 2018, the regime unleashed fierce repression that began with the dispersal of demonstrations and the killing of more than 360 protesters, including many students, the commission said , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). There followed the hunt down of those believed to be leaders of the mobilizations, and later the trials of those dissidents believed to be spurious. In addition, tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have fled the country due to political persecution and a deteriorating economy.
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