Nicaraguan Ex-Political Prisoner at Risk of Deportation
Warning issued for Marlon Castellon
The former political prisoner went into exile in the United States in March 2022. He was detained in December 2024 for a traffic violation.
HAVANA TIMES – Former political prisoner Marlon Castellon Ubilla, an opponent of the Ortega regime and persecuted for his activism, is at serious risk of being deported to Nicaragua from the United States, where he is currently seeking asylum. His situation was denounced by the former political prisoners’ Grupo de Reflexion de Excarcelados Políticos (GREX) on March 21, 2025.
Marlon Castellon is currently being held at the Adelanto Detention Facility in California, where a judge will decide on April 7, 2025, whether he will be deported or not.
The Nicaraguan was arrested for a traffic violation on December 13, 2024, and three days later, placed under the custody of immigration authorities. Since then, several hearings have been scheduled, with the April hearing potentially being the final one.
“Marlon is a political target in Nicaragua and faces serious and imminent risks of imprisonment, torture, and cruel and degrading treatment. Under no circumstances should he be deported to Nicaragua,” GREX warned.
Castellon left Nicaragua in February 2022 with 13 other family members, including his seven-year-old daughter. They all entered the United States illegally on March 27 of the same year through the Piedras Negras crossing on the Mexican border.
The group left Nicaragua through unauthorized routes and made their way to Honduras, where they took on “temporary jobs” to save money and continue their journey to the US, noted GREX.
In the United States, Marlon obtained a work permit and has been working independently as an auto mechanic in recent years.
Marlon Castellon, a Four-Time Prisoner in Nicaragua
Castellon was imprisoned several times in Nicaragua for his activism against the Ortega regime. The dictatorship first detained him on August 25, 2018, and he remained incarcerated until December 30, 2019, serving a total of 16 months and six days.
Later, he faced two short-term arrests before being detained again on March 20, 2021. During this fourth detention, he underwent two trials in which the arbitrariness of the police was evident, leading both cases to be declared invalid.
In the first trial, even though a release order was issued, it was not enforced. In the second trial, he had to wait several months before finally being released on December 15, 2021. As a result of this last detention, he spent a total of 8 months and 25 days in prison, GREX noted.
Former Political Prisoner Comes from an Opposition Family
Marlon’s political activism during the April 2018 uprising and his family’s history of persecution make him a direct target for retaliation. He comes from a fully opposition-aligned family, and he has been “the victim of fierce persecution by the regime,” emphasized the organization of former political prisoners.
His mother, Marta del Socorro Ubilla, and his brother Marvin Castellón Ubilla are among the 222 Nicaraguans who were taken out of prison and exiled on February 9, 2023, later stripped of their nationality and rendered stateless.
“The devil took my homeland (Nicaragua), but the blessing God gave me was sending me to this place and reuniting with all my family members who had come here because of politics. Nephews, sons-in-law, my children (…) We are together, free, even if overcrowded,” said Marta del Socorro Ubilla in an interview with CONFIDENCIAL.
Marlon’s father, Marvin Antonio Castellón, also a former political prisoner, was released in December 2019. He currently has political asylum in the United States, along with the rest of his family who had to go into exile.
“There is no doubt that all of them are political persecuted individuals and cannot return to Nicaragua without the imminent risk of imprisonment, mistreatment, and torture,” stated GREX, which, considering the “serious risks” the former political prisoner faces if returned to Nicaragua, is appealing to the US government to grant him asylum.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.