(Reuters) -The United States did not give any sort of concessions to Nicaragua in exchange for the release of more than 100 political prisoners last week, an official said on Monday.
“There were no exchanges or concessions made,” Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Eric Jacobstein, said in a press conference.
Jacobstein said that the administration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega continued to imprison its citizens for political reasons and urged the leader to free them.
He did not specify how many more political prisoners the U.S. believed to be held in Nicaragua.
Last week, the United States secured the release of 135 political prisoners from Nicaragua and flew them to Guatemala, where they are staying while they apply to migrate to other countries.
Ortega’s government has frequently expelled those it sees as hostile to the administration in recent years.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
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