Daniel Ortega. Jorge Torres | EFE
Among those accused of treason are priests, Sandinista soldiers, students and businessmen.
16 feb 2023 . Updated at 10:43 a.m.
The Nicaraguan authorities stripped 94 people of their Nicaraguan nationality this Wednesday, among them the writers Sergio Ramrez and Gioconda Bellithe auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Bez, and the former commander of the revolution, Luis Carrín.
Also to the veteran defender of human rights Vilma Néz, to the former foreign minister Norman Caldera, to the former Sandinista magistrate Rafael Sols, to the former ambassador to the OAS Arturo McFields, to the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro and to another 85 Nicaraguans accused of crimes considered treason against the homelandaccording to a sentence of the Court of Appeals of Managua.
In the resolution, read by the presiding magistrate of the Court of Appeals of Managua, Ernesto Rodrguez, the immobilization and confiscation in favor of the State of Nicaragua of all real estate and companies that the defendants have registered in their favoreither in a personal capacity, or as a legal entity or companies in which they participate as partners, to answer for the crimes committed.
Declared fugitives from justice
Likewise, the defendants were declared fugitives from justice. Take the (94) accused of being traitors to the country for what the accessory penalties of absolute and special disqualification to hold public office are imposed on themexercise public office in the name or at the service of the State of Nicaragua, as well as hold positions of popular election and the loss of their citizen rights in perpetuity, respectively, the sentence indicates.
Judge Rodrguez said that the 94 Nicaraguans had been accused by the Public Ministry of the crimes of conspiracy to undermine the national integrity in real competition with the crime of spreading false news through information and communication technologies, all to the detriment of the State of Nicaragua and society.
The Managua appeals magistrates explained that they made that decision based on the Special law that regulates the loss of Nicaraguan nationalitywhich was expeditiously approved last Thursday, as well as the Law for the Defense of People’s Rights to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-determination for Peace, published on December 22, 2020.
The judicial authorities notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Supreme Electoral Council of this ruling.
the 94dispossessed
In addition to the writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli, and Bishop Béz, the other Nicaraguans stripped of their nationality are former Vice Chancellor Salvador Stadthagen, academic Ernesto Medina, the former Minister of Education Humberto Bellithe researcher Elvira Cuadra and the opposition politicians Kitty Monterrey, Eliseo Nez, Enrique Senz and Edipsia Dubn.
Also the journalists Sofa Montenegro, Luis Manuel Chavarra Galeano, Jennyfer Ortz, Luca Pineda Ubau, Patricia Orozco, Camilo de Castro, and the correspondent of the newspaperthe country Wilfredo Miranda.
The list includes two former collaborators of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega: Julio López and Mónica Baltodano; human rights defenders, priests, environmentalists, Sandinista dissidents, students, businessmen and merchantsamong others.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018 that has worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega he was re-elected for a fifth termfourth in a row and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison or in exile.