Nicaraguan Prisoners in Guantanamo: Isolated and Afraid
“I fear reprisals from the guards,” says Johon Suazo-Muller. “Being here is terrible,” adds Rodolfo Lopez. Both Nicaraguans are leading legal action.
HAVANA TIMES – Nicaraguans Rodolfo Joel Lopez Jarquín and Johon Elias Suazo-Muller arrived in the United States on different dates and by different routes, although since late April 2025 they share the same fate: they are leading a class action lawsuit over the “severe restrictions imposed” by the US government against migrants detained at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Lopez entered the U.S. legally in August 2024 through humanitarian parole, while Suazo-Muller arrived in October 2023 “because the political situation in my country was not good,” said the Nicaraguan.
Both citizens await deportation to Nicaragua at the Migration Operations Center, which has been operating in Guantanamo for decades. Until February 2025, migrants arriving at the facility were those intercepted by US authorities at sea as they attempted to reach the country’s shores, mainly from Cuba and Haiti.
“We’re locked up 23 hours a day”
The Nicaraguans arrived at the offshore jail between late March and early April 2025. Both gave their testimonies via telephone to Marisol Dominguez Ruiz, an attorney with the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the organization leading the lawsuit. CONFIDENCIAL has copies of the three court filings.
“Being here is terrible. It has affected me negatively. Sometimes I feel depressed. We live locked in the small room 23 hours a day. I spend my time lying down; I don’t know anything about what’s going on,” lamented Lopez in his account to the lawyer on April 26, 2025.
Suazo-Muller said that when he speaks with the attorneys, he’s “afraid to say everything openly” because the calls are on speakerphone and there’s always a guard nearby who “can hear what I’m saying.”
“I fear being punished or suffering reprisals from the guards for saying something that bothers them,” the Nicaraguan said when he spoke to the lawyer on April 21.
Migrants denied rights at Guantanamo Bay
The lawsuit by the two Nicaraguans imprisoned at Guantanamo seeks to represent all detainees in similar circumstances, alleging violations of rights guaranteed by the First and Fifth Amendments to the US Constitution, including the rights of access to legal representation and family communication.
The situation at the Guantanamo immigration facility has historically been opaque, with little public information about what goes on there. International human rights organizations have denounced that the military base operates in a legal vacuum where the same legal guarantees regarding immigration that apply in US territory do not apply.
Ariel Ruiz Soto, an analyst and researcher at the Migration Policy Institute, explained that migrants sent to Guantánamo are stripped of their right to “due process,” which in the US “guarantees” that anyone, regardless of immigration status, “has the right to legal representation.”
“A person who ends up in Guantanamo, since it’s considered outside US territory, has less access to communication, and legal representation is much more opaque,” the expert said in an interview with CONFIDENCIAL and the program Esta Semana.
According to the lawsuit, detainees face “extreme obstacles” in communicating with their attorneys, as in-person legal visits are not allowed and scheduled phone calls often “don’t happen.”
Obstacles to the right of defense
When Lopez and Suazo-Muller speak with their attorneys, it’s under conditions that violate attorney-client confidentiality. “Migrants are shackled and placed under physical restraints, while officers remain nearby, listening in on their conversations,” the legal filing states.
In addition, there is no reliable mechanism for the detainees to send or receive legal documents. Lawyers for Lopez and Suazo-Muller have sent documents through the channels designated by the government, without receiving confirmation of delivery or obtaining the requested signatures.
In addition, officials have “incorrectly” informed migrants that they “do not need legal representation” because they have final orders of deportation, actively discouraging their access to “legal counsel.” Such action ignores the numerous legal options available, even for people with deportation orders.
“Since I arrived at Guantanamo, I was never told I had the right to speak to a lawyer. I have only been able to have legal calls because my lawyer arranged one with me, not because I could request it,” Suazo-Muller denounced.
“I was surprised to have received no information on how to contact a lawyer and I never saw any posters with information on how to talk to one. I have not received any pamphlets, flyers or posters on how to contact a lawyer,” the Nicaraguan stressed.
Lopez said that the Guantánamo guards did not inform him that he had the right to speak to a lawyer, and only asked him about his illnesses and assigned him to a room with six beds.
The Nicaraguan received legal help because a family member requested the support of a lawyer, who scheduled a call. “I was afraid of retaliation for having a legal call. I was worried that the guards would delay my departure and not let me out because I had that call,” he said.
The migrant assured that “I have not been convicted of any crime in the United States or in Nicaragua. In early February (2025), the Louisiana Police detained me following a noise complaint, but to my knowledge, I was not charged with any crime.”
Family Communication Restricted
Nicaraguan detainees and others at Guantánamo are allowed, in theory, one five-minute personal phone call a day. In practice, however, many can only communicate with their families once a week, according to the lawsuit.
Calls are “restricted” to phone numbers in the United States, leaving those with family only in their home countries unreachable.
“(The call with relatives) is not private, the guards are always there and the calls are on loudspeaker. It is not comfortable to talk with two or three people listening, I don’t feel I can share personal information,” commented Lopez.
During the rare family calls, officers immediately disconnect the line if migrants “mention that they are at Guantanamo,” talk about their conditions of confinement or any topic the officers deem inappropriate, further suspending future phone privileges, according to the lawsuit.
“I have been allowed to speak to my family about 20 times. I cannot give information about my stay in Guantanamo. I can’t say where I am or details about my condition,” Suazo-Muller said.
The lawyers warn that the restrictions imposed on migrants at Guantanamo are “significantly more severe” than those applied to people in US immigration detention centers, federal prisons and even prisoners in military custody at the Guantanamo naval base itself.
Arbitrary interrogation and punishment
The lawsuit document reveals other abuses at Guantánamo:
- Some migrants have been questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about gang affiliation, surrounded by up to seven military officers, creating an “extremely intimidating” environment.
- A detainee was falsely accused of hiding his toothbrush, which led to a humiliating strip search, including a search of his genitals.
- Another migrant suffered severe emotional and mental destress, reaching the point of “possible self-harm” after being locked up for four days in a concrete cell without windows or light.
- Officers refer to detainees only by numbers, not by their names, dehumanizing them.
- Upon entry, they are informed that “they are terrorists and have no rights”, establishing an atmosphere of “intimidation” from the very beginning.
- There are no services such as “volunteer work” or “commissary” programs, which are normally available in standard immigration detention centers.
- For approximately three weeks after the first transfers in February 2025, the detainees were held incommunicado, without any access to lawyers, family or the outside world.
“We have one hour of recess a day. But there is nowhere to go. Only a week ago we got a television, which people can watch during that hour. The conditions are of isolation,” said Lopez.
Migrants sent to Guantanamo are held in two different facilities within the naval base:
- Camp 6: A maximum security prison where military prisoners related to the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks were held. This space, with a capacity of 175 people, was not designed for civilian immigration detention, but for prisoners considered “highly dangerous”.
- Migration Operations Center: These are barracks divided into three sections (main, east and west), with a total capacity for 570 people.
On January 29, 2025, US President Donald Trump ordered to expand the Guantanamo naval base by 30,000 beds, “to detain the worst criminal illegal immigrants who are a threat to the American people.”
Senior Pentagon officials assured the US Congress that this “expansion” has not occurred. Moreover, in order to control these 30,000 deportees, the Defense Department “would have to mobilize approximately 9,000 military personnel to Guantanamo to support the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel running the operation,” according to a report in The New York Times, published in early April.
Three flights from Guantanamo to Nicaragua
For the first time in history, the United States is using the Guantanamo naval base to detain migrants – mostly citizens of Venezuela and Nicaragua – who were initially apprehended on US soil.
Ariel Ruiz Soto indicated that, as of early May 2025, almost 500 immigrants have been sent to the US base, although this number varies each week.
“As of today (May 8), we still don’t know how many of the 500 remain in Guantanamo,” said the Migration Policy Institute analyst.
Of the Nicaraguans in Guantánamo, only the cases of Lopez Jarquín and Suazo-Muller are known. Both the US government and the governments of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are keeping the dates and number of deportations secret.
“Today Nicaraguan brothers who were imprisoned in Guantánamo arrived; that is, they are imprisoned in the United States and sent to Guantánamo,” Ortega said in an official act on April 30. However, the president or spokeswoman Rosario Murillo have not specified the number of Nicaraguans detained in Guantanamo.
View of the Airbus A320, of Global X airline, which transported deported Nicaraguan migrants from the Guantanamo military base to Managua, on April 3, 2024. // Photo: Taken from social networks
During April there were three flights with Nicaraguan deportees from the US that stopped at the Guantanamo naval base: on the 3rd, 17th and 30th, according to a report by Thomas Cartwright, who tracks US deportation flights since 2020. He is part of the NGO Witness at the Border.
The three flights with deportees departed from Alexandria, Louisiana, made a stop in Guantanamo, and then redirected to Managua, according to the report.
The April 30 flight was the eighth with Nicaraguans deported from the United States to arrive in Managua, during the first months of the Trump Administration, according to a CONFIDENCIAL analysis.
Lawsuit against officials and institutions
The Nicaraguans’ lawsuit names high-level government officials and federal institutions as responsible:
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS): Federal agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws.
- Kristi Noem: Secretary of Homeland Security, defendant in her official capacity as plaintiffs’ legal custodian.
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): Federal law enforcement agency within DHS responsible for immigration detention.
- Todd Lyons: Acting Director and senior officer performing the duties of the ICE Director, sued in his official capacity.
- Department of Defense: Federal agency responsible for the Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay.
- Pete Hegseth: Secretary of Defense, sued in his official capacity for maintaining custody and control over the plaintiffs.
- Department of State: Federal agency responsible for the resettlement of refugees detained at Guantanamo.
- Marco Rubio: Secretary of State, sued in his official capacity for maintaining custody and control over the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit, filed before a federal judge in Washington, D.C., is being promoted by several leading immigrant rights and civil rights organizations including: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR); and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP).
Analyst Ruiz Soto warned that there is a possibility that Rodolfo Lopez Jarquin and Johon Suazo-Muller could be deported to Nicaragua, if the governments of both countries reach an agreement to expedite their repatriation.
He also recalled that “the case, as we have seen in others, is going to take weeks or months to run its course”.
The investigator explained that the lawyers of the civil organizations will seek to stop the deportation under the argument that both Nicaraguans have “the right to be heard”. They must also demonstrate that the U.S. government did not follow due process to deport them in the first case.
“The lawyers are going to try to get them to return to the United States, to give them a general hearing in front of an immigration court,” Ruiz Soto said.
In his court testimony, Nicaraguan Johon Suazo-Muller expressed that he has “a special fear of being deported” to Nicaragua, or “of being held in prison in El Salvador”.
“I was trying to apply for asylum (in the United States). I was looking for a better life,” he emphasized.
Meanwhile, Rodolfo Lopez said, “There are many rumors and things that people say about who will be deported and when, because we are desperate to know what is happening and when we will get out of here. It is very difficult psychologically.