Nicaragua without a horizon

The expulsion to the United States of 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners executed last Thursday without prior notice by the Daniel Ortega regime is yet another example of the grotesque in which the Central American country lives.

Imprisoned arbitrarily and subjected to all kinds of harassment, the banishment of this contingent of opponents is nothing like what is expected of any minimally civilized regime.

Ortega decided, in a legal pantomime shared by Parliament, to strip them of their legitimate citizenship and leave them stateless in foreign lands.

And a clear warning came to those who refused to leave in the figure of the brave Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a symbol of resistance in the interior.

After refusing to get on the plane of exile, the judicial authorities have imposed,

The opposition no longer has representation in Nicaragua.

It has been completely expelled from the institutions.

Last November, Ortega took full control of the local Administration in the 153 municipalities of the country.

The vast majority of journalists went into exile to be able to work from abroad, while the regime culminated months ago in the coup against the newspaper

with the confiscation of its facilities.

Faced with this totalitarian course, it is important that international pressure be maintained and seek the restoration of democracy.

The country has entered an increasingly dangerous drift.

Already before the electoral fraud that in 2021 allowed them to remain in power, the presidential couple unleashed a relentless persecution of opponents and journalists, in a visible growing North Koreanization of the regime.

In this spiral, emptying prisons is, of course, a momentary relief for those who leave them behind, but in no case does it represent a democratic advance but rather a new sign of unpunished despotism.

The international community must remain vigilant and not allow these expulsions to translate into a blank check to commit new outrages.

It is also essential that those who have been so brutally treated receive the greatest possible help and that their future does not remain in no man's land: this is the direction of the decision of the Government of Pedro Sánchez to offer Spanish nationality to the exiles.

The gesture gives greatness to Spanish diplomacy and has generated a wave of applause in Latin America.

Protecting those persecuted for political reasons, opening the borders to them and helping those who defend democracy in extreme conditions are objectives that, beyond any political situation, define the moral height of a country.

Many years ago, when barbarism was rampant in Spain and Europe, tens of thousands of persecuted Spaniards were welcomed by those same ideals on American soil.

It would be desirable for this principle to apply to all those seeking asylum,