Eduardo González
The Ministry of Justice has granted Spanish nationality to Nicaraguan businessman Michael Healy Lacayo, imprisoned in October 2021 by the Government of Daniel Ortega for money laundering and incitement to foreign interference and included in the list of opponents who were stripped of their citizenship for the regime.
At the proposal of the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, the Council of Ministers granted Spanish nationality this past Tuesday by naturalization letter to Michael Healy. Nationality by naturalization card is an exceptional procedure and much faster than the usual channels and prevents these people from prolonging their stateless situation for a long time.
Michael Healy Lacayo, 61, is a sugarcane and plantain producer in the department of Rivas, in southwestern Nicaragua, and was president of the Union of Agricultural Producers of Nicaragua (UPANIC). In 2018, part of his property was confiscated by sympathizers of the Sandinista government. Healy represented the private sector through the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy, an opposition group that emerged after the outbreak of the Nicaraguan protests from 2018 to 2021, and in September 2020 he was elected president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), the country’s main business chamber.
In October 2021 -three weeks before the general elections-, he was arrested by the National Police, along with the vice president of COSEP, Álvaro Vargas, on charges of “laundering money, goods and assets, to the detriment of the State and society”. Nicaraguan” and “acts that undermine independence, sovereignty and self-determination”, specifically for inciting foreign interference and proposing economic blockades. His predecessor in COSEP and Nicaraguan presidential candidate, José Adán Aguerri, was also arrested in June of that year on similar charges. Both Aguerri and Healy had participated in conversations with opponents after the student social revolt in 2018.
“These repressive actions by the government demonstrate a direct attack on the Superior Council of the Nicaraguan private company and its main leaders, which does not contribute to the peace and security that all citizens long for,” COSEP denounced in a statement. “We demand his immediate release. We reject the persecution and harassment of the regime against Michael Healy Lacayo”, declared the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy.
91 nationalizations
With Healy, there are already 91 Nicaraguans who have received Spanish nationality by naturalization card since last May 11 after being expelled and stripped of their citizenship by the Daniel Ortega regime. On February 9, the Government of Managua expelled the country to the United States and stripped of their nationality 222 opponents (diplomats, former state officials, human rights defenders, Sandinista dissidents, opponents, journalists, academics, students, businessmen and merchants) accused of treason.
After learning of the Ortega regime’s decision, the Pedro Sánchez government offered to grant Spanish nationality to those declared “stateless” by the Nicaraguan regime. On February 16, Daniel Ortega decreed the withdrawal of nationality and the seizure of his assets from 94 other opponents for the same reasons. The day after this decision by Ortega, the Spanish government extended its offer to this second group of 94 Nicaraguans. In addition to Spain, the governments of Chile, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico have also offered nationality to the “stateless” of the regime.
Among those who benefited from this measure are the sociologist Gertrudis Guerrero, wife of the exiled Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, who was already in possession of Spanish nationality; the journalist Cristiana Chamorro, a presidential candidate who in the 2021 elections was listed as the candidate with the highest probability of defeating Ortega; journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios, founder of the local newspaper Confidencial and son of former President Violeta Chamorro; the former Nicaraguan ambassador to the US (between 2007 and 2009, already with Daniel Ortega) and former presidential candidate Arturo José Cruz Sequeira; the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Norman Caldera Cardenal (between 2002 and 2007, under the Presidency of Enrique Bolaños); the wife of former President Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002) and former deputy María Fernanda Flores Lanzas; and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and former vice-presidential candidate Francisco Aguirre Sacasa.
