Ortega Denies Nicaraguan Pilot the Right to Return Home
The Ortega-Murillo regime refused entry to Nicaraguan Anielka Espino when she attempted to fly from Miami on Spirit Airlines.
HAVANA TIMES – On February 6, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo blocked Nicaraguan pilot Anielka Espino from returning home from the United States, according to information given the Nicaraguan news site 100% Noticias. Espino is a Nicaraguan citizen, as well as a known Tik Tok personality with many followers.
Espino discovered she’d been barred via a letter from Spirit Airlines notifying her that her flight from Miami had been cancelled, since her entry had been prohibited. The pilot was scheduled to leave Miami on the night of February 5, heading to Managua.
Anielka Espino pilots helicopters through her company “Spino Luxury Aviation”, which offers charter flights and air tours in Miami. She also promotes her brand of natural products “Buena Vida”, which she touts as a means for promoting business initiatives for women.
Who is Anielka Espino?
Born in Ocotal, Nueva Segovia, Anielka Espino has shared some of her personal story on social media. Since her dream of becoming a helicopter pilot wasn’t possible in Nicaragua, she opted to study and prepare herself in the United States. “I have a Nicaraguan license to fly airplanes,” she assured in an interview with the online news site Confidencial.
In that interview, Espino recalled the first time she saw an aircraft land. It was 1998, during the Hurricane Mitch emergency, and she was 8 years old. “As a small-town girl who had never seen a helicopter, I was very impressed when I saw it land, carrying humanitarian aid,” the 33-year-old Nicaraguan stated.
Espino has a degree in Business Communication and also holds two pilot’s licenses: one for fixed-wing aircraft and the other for helicopters. Although she completed her university studies in Nicaragua, she always dreamed of “moving through the air.”
In the same interview, she explained that during one of her trips to the United States – at a time her beauty products business was thriving – she decided to invest in aeronautical training at Broward College, a leading aviation academy in Florida.
The career is expensive: “An hour’s flight in an airplane costs between $140 and $170. Learning to fly helicopters is even more expensive, with practice flights priced between $500 and $600 an hour for practice flights,” she said. “As with everything in life, first you have to do whatever you can, then later what you want. I started with airplanes and then moved on to helicopters. Now I have both licenses,” Espino concluded.