CNN
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Spain will offer the way to citizenship for 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners, many of whom were recently released from prison and sent to the United States on Thursday, a spokesman for Spain’s foreign ministry told CNN.
A spokesman did not immediately respond to CNN’s questions about details of the offer, including how quickly citizenship could be obtained. Told.
Questions are rising about the fate of more than 200 new arrivals to the United States who were stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship on Thursday.
Their release followed years of crackdown by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. It has imprisoned people and activists.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday that the individuals who all flew into Washington’s Dulles International Airport will be granted two years of humanitarian parole, allowing them to remain in the U.S. and time to apply for asylum if they wish. said to be given.
Each individual who left Nicaragua “voluntarily agreed to travel,” and “there were two individuals who voluntarily chose not to travel to the United States,” Price said.
According to US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken, there was one American among the released POWs who welcomed their move and called it a product of US diplomacy.
Ortega said Thursday that their release had not been negotiated with Washington.
After calling the release of prisoners “a message for peace and stability in Nicaragua,” the 77-year-old leader said the original list of prisoners to be released included 228 names, but the United States refused at least four prisoners convicted of common crimes.
Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a prominent member of the Catholic Church who had long opposed the Ortega government and was detained in August 2022, was also due to be released, but he refused, Ortega said. Instead, his 11 members of the clergy were released Thursday morning.
The political prisoners were greeted at Dulles Airport by US officials, activists and members of the Nicaraguan diaspora.
One of those who arrived was political activist Felix Maladyaga. He told CNN en Espanol that it was on his plane that he realized for the first time what was going on.
“They made us sign some documents written in one line saying that we were leaving the country of our own free will without any further explanation,” he said. “While it was a shocking event, I was overwhelmed by the opportunity to hug my family at this moment. Personally, I haven’t seen my daughter in over three years.”
