Former Nicaraguan presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga, in a file photograph (EFE/Octavio Guzmán)
A representation of the 222 political prisoners released a month ago and expelled by Daniel Ortega to the United States traveled to Geneva on Monday to denounce, before various United Nations ambassadors and diplomats, the attacks on human rights by the Nicaraguan regime.
Despite the fact that they do not have a passport because Ortega stripped them of their nationality, five of the 222 prisoners were able to travel with a special permit granted by the United States government, former presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga told the EFE news agency.
He was one of the five who traveled, along with fellow candidates Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Medardo Mairena, and human rights defenders Yaritza Mairena and Solange Centeno, two of the 33 women on board the flight that landed at the airport. from Dulles, near Washington DC, on February 9.
A few hours before and by unilateral decision, Ortega released the 222 inmates from prison and sent them on a plane to the United States, revoking their nationality.
Through a statement sent by the Foundation for the Freedom of Nicaragua, created by Chamorro, the delegation of former prisoners reported that in Geneva they met with ambassadors and diplomats from European delegations accredited to the United Nations office.
A mural of Daniel Ortega, with inscriptions against him (AP Photo/Esteban Félix, File)
The meetings were held at the European Union delegation, “in the framework of the sessions of the UN Human Rights Council, and parallel meetings of other organizations based in that European city.”
The mission will remain until March 18 and meetings are scheduled with various human rights organizations and official missions.
All this with the aim of advocating for the extension of the mandate of the Group of Experts on Human Rights on Nicaragua, promoting new diplomatic measures against the Ortega regime and pressing for the release of the 37 political prisoners who are still detained.
Thus, Mairena explained the serious human violations committed against peasants and indigenous communities, while Chamorro spoke about the institutional deterioration, the violation of due process, and the violations of the Nicaraguan electoral process.
Maradiaga, for his part, called on the international community to do “everything legally within its power to achieve the release of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez and the other political prisoners” who are still imprisoned in various Nicaraguan prisons.
(With information from EFE)
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