Meanwhile, there are already several dozen Nicaraguan citizens stripped of their nationality by government order, who have indicated their willingness to accept the Spanish offer to become nationalized in the country.
“Spain has wanted no Nicaraguan brother to be left without a nationality. We feel very proud,” the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Albares, said at a press conference in Brussels after the meeting of the 27 European Union foreign ministers In its conclusions on the priorities of the EU for the United Nations forums in the field of human rights, Nicaragua appears.
“The statelessness situation in which they have been left will not prevent Nicaraguans from continuing to reside, write and think freely in Spain,” stressed Minister Albares. The allusion is to writers and opponents who are among the 94 Nicaraguan citizens who were also ” denationalized” (02.16.2023) after the first 222 political prisoners released and at the same time exiled (02.09.2023).
Do they leave them alone?
“In Latin America, only Chile and Mexico have spoken. In Europe, only Spain has offered Spanish nationality, not only to the 316, but to anyone who could be exiled or denationalized,” Danny Ramírez-Ayérdiz, executive secretary, told DW. of the Center for Inter-American Legal Assistance in Human Rights (CALIDH).The news of his exile and stripping of nationality found him in Argentina, where, since 2019, when his organization began to be harassed by the police, he works at the University of Buenos Aires.
“It is necessary that other countries that have followed the situation in Nicaragua since 2018 and that have declared themselves committed to the return of democracy and human rights speak forcefully and ignore these measures adopted unilaterally by the Government of Daniel Ortega ” emphasizes Ramírez-Ayérdiz.
“Human beings have the right to a nationality”
What would it mean to ignore those measures? “I am not asking the Government of Argentina to give me Argentine nationality; I am asking that I be recognized as a Nicaraguan,” replies Ramírez-Ayérdiz. This, in practical terms, means that when a passport of a “denationalized” citizen expires , the host countries grant a special document as a Nicaraguan asylee or refugee. The third possibility is that the term “stateless person” appears in that document.
“This violates article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the human being has the right to a nationality and this cannot be arbitrarily taken away. And, although they have reformed the Constitution to be able to do so, international treaties prevail over the national magna carta ”, continues Ramírez-Ayérdiz.
According to this lawyer specializing in human rights, if the receiving States issued a passport accepting “statelessness”, they would be legitimizing an action that contravenes international law. “The path is the one followed by the United States: grant temporary Nicaraguan refugee status,” he affirms. .
invented causes
On the other hand, we must not forget that all the people in the group of 94 were declared “fugitives from justice” and the 316 were disqualified from holding public office in perpetuity. “The Government of Nicaragua is inventing laws, penalties and sanctions. Nicaraguan law establishes that no one can be tried in absentia. And we have been and convicted of ‘treason against the homeland’. In addition, all sentences have a limit of thirty years, perpetuity does not exist in the legislation, ”he adds.
In any case, for human rights organizations active in San José de Costa Rica, Buenos Aires and Brussels, to the concern for the situation of the exiles -who require international protection-, is added the uncertainty for the thirty political prisoners that remain. in Nicaraguan prisons and by Bishop Rolando Álvarez, sentenced to 26 years in prison. Bishop Álvarez did not want to go into exile and is in prison without being Nicaraguan anymore.
From the EU diplomacy, the announcement of revocation of citizenship and confiscation of assets was immediately described as “unjustifiable” and called for reversal of these measures.
However, in the opinion of Ramírez-Ayérdiz, a specialist in human rights and a victim at the same time, “international legislation is clear. The EU needs to pronounce itself forcefully on what will be the status that will be recognized for the “denationalized” of Nicaragua”. (ms)