Mahaz News
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Spain will supply a path to citizenship for 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners who have been lately launched from jail and plenty of of whom have been despatched to the United States on Thursday, a spokesman for Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised Mahaz News.

The spokesman didn’t instantly reply to a Mahaz News query relating to the main points of the supply, together with how rapidly they might obtain citizenship. The spokesman spoke on the situation of anonymity, citing native skilled norms.

Questions have mounted on the destiny of the greater than 200 new arrivals to the US, who have been additionally stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship on Thursday.

Their launch adopted years of repression by the Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega. The authoritarian chief has jailed dozens of opposition figures and activists, significantly within the lead as much as the final elections in November of 2021.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price mentioned Thursday that the people, who all flew to Dulles International airport in Washington, shall be granted humanitarian parole for 2 years, permitting them to stay US and giving them the time to use for asylum if they want.

Each of the people who left Nicaragua “voluntarily consented to travel,” and “there were two individuals who, on their own volition, chose not to travel to the United States,” Price mentioned.

Among the launched prisoners is one American, in response to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who welcomed their transfer, calling it a product of American diplomacy.

Ortega on Thursday mentioned their launch was not negotiated with Washington. “We just wanted them to go,” Ortega mentioned.

After calling the discharge of the prisoners “a message for peace and stability for Nicaragua,” the 77-year-old chief mentioned the unique record of these to be launched contained 228 names, however the US had vetoed at the least 4 prisoners as a result of that they had been convicted of widespread crimes.

Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a high-profile member of the Catholic Church who has lengthy opposed the Ortega regime and was detained in August 2022, was additionally as a consequence of be launched, however he refused, Ortega mentioned. Instead, 11 members of the clergy have been launched on Thursday morning.

The political prisoners have been greeted by US officers, activists and members of the Nicaraguan diaspora at Dulles airport.

One of the arrivals was political activist Felix Maradiaga, who advised Mahaz News en Espanol that they solely realized what was taking place when by the airplane.

“They made us sign some documents saying in one single line that we were leaving the country of our free will with no further explanation,” he mentioned. “On one side what happened is shocking, but on the other, I’m overwhelmed by this moment, the opportunity to hug our family. Personally, I haven’t seen my daughter in more than three years.”