Nicaragua frees 222 political prisoners, sends them to U.S.

The authoritarian government of Nicaragua freed 222 political prisoners Thursday in a deal negotiated with the United States, according to Biden administration officials familiar with the agreement.

The former prisoners, some of whom have spent years in jail, were expected to land at Washington’s Dulles International Airport late Thursday morning, the officials said.

It was a stunning turn of events for Nicaragua, a small Central American nation that has been targeted with severe economic sanctions by the United States and for the last 16 years has been ruled by Daniel Ortega, a former leftist Sandinista revolutionary who helped overthrow the country’s right-wing dictatorship in the 1970s.

Ortega first served as president in the 1980s during a bloody civil war that pitted Sandinista fighters against U.S.-backed Contra rebels. He was voted out in the 1990 presidential election but returned to power in 2007. By rigging elections, he has remained president ever since, becoming the longest-serving leader in Latin America.

After violently suppressing pro-democracy protests in 2018, Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, tightened their grip on power, imprisoning hundreds of journalists, political candidates and business and religious leaders. Those jailed in recent years include many of Ortega’s former leftist comrades, including Dora María Téllez, a onetime Sandanista commander who publicly accused Ortega of betraying their dreams of a socialist utopia and coming to resemble the dictator they helped overthrow.

Nicaraguan authorities stand guard outside of a television station shuttered by the government in 2018.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Many were jailed at Managua’s infamous El Chipote prison, where, according to some prisoners who were released, torture was common and food was scant.

The U.S. officials said that while they negotiated the deal with top Nicaraguan officials — and provided transportation for the prisoners to Washington — the United States offered nothing concrete in return for their release.

But Nicaragua, which has been crippled by U.S. sanctions, has in recent months appeared open to a possible rapprochement with the United States, which it has long vilified.

Lucía Pineda, director of the 100% Noticias news channel, fled Nicaragua after being jailed for six months.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

News of the prisoners’ release was greeted with shock and joy by many Nicaraguans and those who have gone into exile in recent years.

Dolly Mora, a 30-year-old leader of the Nicaraguan University Alliance, a political youth movement, said that on Wednesday night she began hearing reports that political inmates were being moved out of various prisons.

She didn’t sleep that night, suspecting that the prisoners would be freed soon. On Thursday morning, she received confirmation that a large group was being flown to the United States. It includes four people from the Nicaragua University Alliance who had been sentenced to years in prison, including for violating a sweeping treason law, she said.

“We are happy that our friends and all the prisoners are going to be free,” said Mora, who left Nicaragua last year and is living in the United States.

A banner sports an image of Daniel Ortega, who has led Nicaragua since 2007.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

From abroad, Mora’s movement has sought to raise attention to Nicaragua’s political prisoners and the government’s crackdown against opposition figures. They promoted the hashtag #MiCandidatoEstaPreso, or “my candidate is incarcerated,” on social media before the country’s presidential elections in November, when potential challengers to longtime President Daniel Ortega were arrested under a new treason law.

She added: “This is not over. They freed the prisoners but there’s still the fight for freedom in Nicaragua.”

Linthicum and Miller reported from Mexico City. Wilkinson reported from Washington.