Simon Hunter
SPAIN’S Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares announced on Friday that the country is offering citizenship to the more than 200 political prisoners who were freed from prison in Nicaragua last week and flown to the United States.
The now-former inmates were mostly prominent critics of the government, and had been jailed thanks to a crackdown on political dissent by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega over recent years, Reuters reported.
Among the liberated figures are five former presidential hopefuls who had sought to challenge Ortega at a 2021 general election, but ended up in prison instead.
Ortega is trying to strip the former inmates of their citizenship, meaning they could struggle to return home in the future.
Albares told news agency Servimedia of the plan on Friday, adding that the country is prepared to receive others.
He stated that the decision by the Socialist Party government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez came ‘after news reports that proceedings had begun to declare them stateless’.
Read more:
- Spain’s PM Pedro Sanchez says European Union should become more self-sufficient
- Spain wants extension of ‘Iberian exemption’ on gas prices used in electricity generation
- Spain cuts windfall tax grab on energy firms to win support of regional political parties
