♪♪
geoff: Earlier this month
Nicaragua exiled hundreds of
, political prisoners to the
U.S.
All of them, and dozens of other
Nicaraguans, were stripped of
their citizenship by a
government that has become
increasingly authoritarian.
At Washington's dulles airport,
a day of joy.
And a moment of relief and
reunion.
Juan Sebastian Chamorro is one
of more than 200 Nicaraguan
political prisoners freed
earlier this month, and flown to
the U.S.
>> I was sentenced to 13 years
in prison, without any proof.
Geoff: Nicaragua has been under
U.S. Sanctions for decades, but
officials say the release was a
unilateral decision by president
Daniel Ortega.
>> We are not asking for
anything in return.
It is a matter of honor and for
them to take their mercenaries
away.
Geoff: The people he calls
American mercenaries include
students, human right defenders
, and opposition leaders, who
were arrested for challenging
his rule.
They were released, but forced
into exile.
The government revoked their
citizenship, and that of 94 more
Nicaraguans who Ortega calls
quote, "Traitors to the
, motherland," including one of
the country's best-known
writers, Sergio Ramirez.
>> This has no basis in any
legal standards, it violates
them.
But we've received infinite
solidarity from around the
world.
Geoff: Once a close ally of
president Daniel Ortega, Ramirez
was a prominent figure in the
1979 sandinista revolution that
overthrew the Somoza
dictatorship.
He served as vice-president
during the 1980's in the first
sandinista government led by
Ortega, but broke with him in
the 1990's over his excessive
grip on power.
>> What I remember is a shared
leadership in the revolution, to
create a common project for the
country.
That project can be judged
either way today.
But it was a project, and that's
what Nicaragua is missing now.
Geoff: Nicaragua was at war with
the Contras, a u.s.-backed rebel
group that fought to eradicate
communism, when Ortega came to
power in 1984.
He was then defeated in 1990 by
opposition candidate Violeta
Chamorro, another close ally who
had defected from the sandinista
party.
>> Use -- defections after
defections.
Geoff: Cynthia arnson is a
distinguished fellow with the
Woodrow Wilson center.
>> There were people who in the
sandinista movement, who had
embraced the anti-authoritarian,
anti-repressive aspects of the
sandinista movement and became
gradually disaffected as
sandinismo became much more
associated with a personalistic
dictatorship around Daniel
Ortega.
Geoff: Ortega was elected again
in 2006, and vowed to never lose
a future race.
He abolished presidential term
limits.
At one point, he embraced the
private sector and brought
government growth.
Geoff: But then came a decade of
what U.S. Officials call sham
elections, and crackdown on
dissent then, more intimidation.
More than 2000 Ngo's and at
50 media outlets shut down.
Political opponents poised to
run against him in the 2021
elections were arrested.
>> Even if you can believe
public opinion polls seem to
desire a change, Ortega is not
going to allow that.
And that is why he imprisoned so
many people in advance of the
November 2021 elections.
Geoff: But with their release,
there's now renewed hope,
however faint, for a return to
democracy.
I spoke recently with Felix
mara-diaga, a former Nicaraguan
presidential candidate and
political prisoner, who is now
exiled in the U.S.
He spent nearly two years in
captivity, and we spoke about
his experience inside one of
the country's most notorious
prisons.
>> For years even before I
became a politician, I was a
human rights defender, an
academic.
I focused most of my life in in
post-conflict reconstruction,
civil society.
I met with other former
political prisoners around the
world.
But having experienced that
myself, it's even today
something hard to to to
-- something hard to describe.
I was in a small cell of the
first day -- to be exact, the
first 84 days.
I was officially disappeared in
the sense that the government
did not allowed my family, my
lawyers, or anyone to know about
my whereabouts.
Geoff: How were you able to
endure that?
84 days in solitary confinement,
most of it spent in complete
darkness?
>> I used my faith as my source
of strength, prayer and
meditation.
But mostly I was convinced that
my wife had become a relentless
advocate for my freedom and the
freedom of all political
prisoners, as we had agreed,
because I knew that at some
point I was going to be
arrested.
And also my convictions, my
principles.
I got into Nicaraguan politics
to pursue a basic human rights
in Nicaragua.
Geoff: On February 9, the Ortega
government released you and 221
other political prisoners.
Take us back to that moment.
That moment you realized that
you were free.
>> They ask us to dress in
civilian clothing, and then we
were put on a bus, handcuffed
with our heads looking down.
So we did not know what was the
direction of the bus.
Suddenly, about 40 minutes
later, we arrived at the Managua
airport and we were asked to
sign a paper, basically a one
liner saying that we voluntarily
would leave the country towards
the United States.
And only then we learned that we
had been expelled from the
country and sent into exile.
However, we did not know that we
had been stripped from our
nationality.
We learned that upon landing in
Washington.
But watching seen U.S. Diplomats
traveling from Washington to
Managua to free us to welcome us
into an airplane is something
that I can only define as truly
the shining city on the hill.
File need -- I feel I need to
thank the American people for
welcoming us.
Geoff: What does your release
signal or suggest about the
stability of the Ortega regime?
Does it signal weakness on their
part?
>> [00:13:40]absolutely.
-- >> Absolutely.
It signals that everything in
his playbook has not worked so
far.
He tried, as he did with me and
many others, to beat us.
I was severely beaten in two
occasions.
He put us into prison and he
did, as he did with hundreds of
political prisoners prior to our
release.
And we continued to fight in a
nonviolent way.
So he used banishment as his
last resort.
Geoff: What are conditions in
Nicaragua right now for for
everyday citizens living under
the Ortega regime?
>> From what I've learned, the
situation is very hard in the
sense that everyone who issues
an opinion, everyone's to tweet
or to even use private messaging
to speak a private opinion is
subject to arrest.
The police has full control of
Nicaraguan information and the
way in which people exchange
information.
I think that it can only be
compared to a sort of even
private companies are requested
-- sort of tropical North Korea.
Even private companies are
requested to present a list of
people have been involved in any
type of opinion against the
government.
Newspapers are shut down.
University students are expelled
out of universities because of
their political ideas.
It is something unheard of in
that America.
And more recently, over 300
-- Latin America.
And more recently, over 300
people is stripped from their
nationality, something that is
against international law.
Geoff: The secretary of state,
Tony blinken, called the release
of you and other prisoners.
He says it's a constructive step
towards addressing human rights
abuses in this country.
President Ortega has been in
power for more than a decade.
There's nothing to suggest that
he's going anywhere anytime
soon.
What do you think comes next?
>> Well, as we've seen in other
cases of Latin America, there's
there's always the possibility
that dictators will remain there
for a while.
But I also know that there are
many, many Nicaraguans who are
committed to the are nonviolent,
peaceful, democratic struggle
for a new Nicaragua, a new
Nicaragua, in which even
sandinista supporters will be
welcome to be part of a new of a
new nation.
Nicaragua has had cycles of
violence precisely because those
who are former political
prisoners, as Ortega himself was
a prisoner in the 1970's, once
they are free, they become what
they used to hate.
In our case, we made it very
clear that we want to break that
cycle of violence.
We want to establish freedom and
democracy in our country.
So we will go back and we will
continue to work for that
Nicaragua that we love.
Senator Warren: -- Geoff: Felix,
I think -- thank you so much for
your time.