Nicaragua strips 94 citizens of their nationality

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Nicaragua’s government has stripped 94 citizens of their nationality, according to a resolution read by Judge Gerardo Rodriguez on Wednesday, February 15.

The order affects Nicaraguans living abroad, but also some still residing in the country.

“I am Nicaraguan by the grace of God… if they think they’re going to bring me to my knees, they are tangled. Long live Nicaragua!” Alvaro Navarro, a journalist stripped of his nationality, wrote on Twitter.

The move comes after the government “expelled” more than 200 political prisoners to the United States last week, nearly all of them prominent government critics jailed in President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown on dissent over recent years.

The government later announced it plans to strip all of them of their citizenship, too.

The government reformed Article 21 of the Constitution to do so, which, according to constitutional lawyers, needs to receive the green light of two legislatures to be enacted. The next one begins in 2024.

Ortega described the surprise release of the prisoners as a push to expel criminal provocateurs, while the United States hailed it as a “constructive step” toward improving human rights. – Rappler.com