MADRID (Reuters) – Spain on Friday offered citizenship to 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners who were freed and flown to the United States the previous day, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told the Servimedia news outlet.
Hailing Nicaragua’s decision to free the critics of President Daniel Ortega jailed during his crackdown on dissent in recent years, Albares said in a video interview that Spain was also ready to receive any other such prisoners.
“The government is offering Spanish citizenship to these 222 released prisoners after news reports that proceedings had begun to declare them stateless,” he said, adding that the Spanish authorities will contact them so they can formally apply for citizenship.
Those freed include five former presidential hopefuls who sought to challenge the increasingly authoritarian Ortega in a 2021 election only to be jailed in an unprecedented dragnet and criminalizing of political dissent in the Central American country.
Ortega has described the release as a push to expel criminal provocateurs who sought to undermine Nicaragua, while the United States hailed it as a “constructive step” towards improving human rights.
(Reporting by Elena Rodriguez, Andrei Khalip; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
