Nicaraguan opponents begin procedures in the US to receive aid from Spain

MADRID, 14 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Some of the Nicaraguan opponents deported to the United States last week have already begun the bureaucratic procedures to avail themselves of the help provided by the Spanish Government, which has offered nationality to all of them, in the first days of exile marked by confusion and by thanks for the support offered from Spain.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, revealed on Monday that "several" of the 222 Nicaraguan opponents who have been exiled to the United States and deprived of nationality have accepted the government's offer.

The sociologist Silvio Prado, resident in Spain and vice president of the Free Nicaragua Association, explained to Europa Press that, until Monday, more than a dozen people had contacted the Spanish consular services to start the procedures, including some who would have already made it public as Oscar-René Vargas and Irving Larios.

Others, on the other hand, do not yet know which way to go. "All of this is very overwhelming," the activist Berta Valle, who received her husband, the opposition politician Félix Madariaga, after more than a year and a half in prison, acknowledges in statements to Europa Press.

In relation to the Spanish offer, Valle does admit that "it is something that has to be considered." In his case, he has been established in the United States since 2014, but he believes it necessary, once the waters calm down, to examine the "legal implications" of the "exile" ordered by the Daniel Ortega regime.

"What he can say is that we are extremely grateful for the solidarity and willingness of the Government of Spain," emphasizes Valle, who sees the aid as a possible "relief" for many Nicaraguan families who must now decide their future.

The United States authorities have granted the exiled prisoners a humanitarian status valid in principle for two years, but the Nicaraguan opposition press has verified that a large part of those who have arrived in the North American country lack family members or direct contacts, as in the case of Madariaga. .

Silvio Prado agrees with Berta Valle in praising Spain's gesture, "an extraordinary measure" in his opinion. The sociologist emphasizes that, on the one hand, "it has opened the doors" to people who have been left "destitute" and, on the other, it has served to "neutralize" the will of the "dictatorship" to leave more than 200 stateless people.

"It defeats the purposes of punishing those released after having sent them into exile," explains Prado, who estimates that several dozen people may end up arriving in Spain.

Likewise, Prado values ​​the "closeness" of the government of Pedro Sánchez to the Nicaraguan people and warns that having diplomatic relations with the Ortega regime --this same month the president received the credentials of the new Spanish ambassador-- necessarily implies "laundering" its abuses.

Both the Nicaraguan and US authorities have ruled out that the deportation was the result of some kind of negotiation, but for Prado "it was not a generous act, it was not voluntary" on the part of the Ortega regime. It was, he adds, "the result of international pressure", which has made it clear that "the dictatorship could not go to any international forum without demanding the release of political prisoners".

The sociologist recalls that the list of political prisoners is still not zero in Nicaragua and calls on the opposition to join forces taking advantage of the milestone of the releases: "The common enemy is the dictatorship."

In this sense, he hopes that the former prisoners can use the "great moral authority" they carry to "regroup the opposition", that "they have come out with the lesson learned that there are more things in common than in disagreement within the groups of the opposition".