Eduardo González
The Ministry of Justice has granted Spanish nationality to a new group of seven Nicaraguan opponents, bringing to 98 the number of beneficiaries of this measure after having been expelled and stripped of their citizenship by the regime of Daniel Ortega.
At the proposal of the acting Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, the Council of Ministers granted this past Tuesday the Spanish nationality by letter of nature to these seven people. The nationality by letter of nature is an exceptional and much faster procedure than the usual channels and allows these people to avoid prolonging their statelessness for a long time.
The beneficiaries on this occasion are Cristian Josué Mendoza Fernández, released political prisoner, accused for protests in the sector of the Polytechnic University (Upoli); Francisca Ramírez Tórrez, peasant leader in exile and former president of the Anticanal Peasant Movement; John Christopher Cerna Zuniga, university leader and political prisoner; Lesther Lenin Alemán Alfaro, student representative who interrupted President Daniel Ortega, during the opening of the national dialogue with students and opponents in 2018, to demand an end to the repression; Ligia Ivette Gómez, former political secretary of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN, Ortega’s party) at the Central Bank of Nicaragua, who internationally denounced the regime’s massacres against the April Rebellion of 2018; Roberto Bendaña McEwan, former head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, convicted in 2016 for “aggravated swindling and fraudulent offering of credit effects”; and Roberto Danilo Samcam Ruiz, retired Army commander and exiled oppositionist.
With these seven, 98 Nicaraguans have been granted Spanish nationality since May 11, after having been expelled and stripped of their citizenship by Daniel Ortega’s regime.
Last February 9, the Government of Managua expelled 222 opponents (diplomats, former State officials, human rights defenders, Sandinista dissidents, oppositionists, journalists, academics, students, businessmen and traders) accused of treason, from the country to the USA and stripped them of their citizenship. After learning of the Ortega regime’s decision, the government of Pedro Sanchez offered to grant Spanish nationality to those declared “stateless” by the Nicaraguan regime. A week later, Daniel Ortega decreed the withdrawal of nationality and the seizure of their assets to another 94 opponents for the same reasons, after which the Spanish Government extended its offer to this second group. In addition to Spain, the Governments of Chile, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico have also offered nationality to the regime’s “stateless persons”.
Among the almost 100 beneficiaries of this measure are sociologist Gertrudis Guerrero, wife of exiled Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramirez, who already had Spanish nationality; journalist Cristiana Chamorro, presidential pre-candidate who in the 2021 elections was the most likely candidate to defeat Ortega; journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios, founder of the local newspaper Confidencial and son of former president Violeta Chamorro; former Nicaraguan ambassador to the US (between 2007 and 2009, under Daniel Ortega) and former presidential candidate Arturo José Cruz Sequeira; former Foreign Minister Norman Caldera Cardenal (between 2002 and 2007, under the presidency of Enrique Bolaños); the wife of former President Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002) and former congresswoman María Fernanda Flores Lanzas; and former Foreign Minister and former vice presidential candidate Francisco Aguirre Sacasa.
