OAS Demands Nicaragua Restore Rights to Expelled Prisoners
HAVANA TIMES – On Thursday, the Organization of American States (OAS) demanded that the Government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua restore the rights of the 222 political prisoners expelled to the United States.
The OAS General Secretariat headed by Luis Almagro issued a statement saying that the prisoners no longer being in prison is “great news” but criticized their having been stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality.
“The crimes committed against these people must not go unpunished, and their rights must be restored as soon as possible,” stressed Almagro.
At the same time, the OAS praised the United States for hosting the 222 expelled prisoners, noting that the Government of Joe Biden is “an example of effective political work in favor of human rights.”
The General Secretariat stressed that these political prisoners were sentenced in “trials without due process, for alleged treason” and were “stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality and all their rights as citizens.”
Therefore, although “their freedom is great news” for the families and friends of those released, the OAS considers that what happened cannot be considered true “liberation.”
In addition, they affirmed that in Nicaragua “there is still a long way to go, since there are still people imprisoned and tortured for thinking differently.”
“The release of these political prisoners is also a demonstration that putting international pressure on dictatorships is essential,” the OAS Secretariat emphasized.
The political prisoners learned that they had been released and expelled at the doors of the plane chartered by the US government that took them from Managua to Washington on Thursday February 9th..
This was explained in statements to the press by former Nicaraguan presidential candidate Juan Sebastian Chamorro outside the hotel where the group was transferred and where some of them would spend the night.
The Biden Administration maintains that the political prisoners’ release and expulsion was a “unilateral decision” of the Ortega government that was not negotiated with Washington, but the United States agreed to accept them.
According to the US State Department, before the released prisoners boarded the plane, US authorities made sure “each of them wished to travel to the United States.”