4min chapter

Explaining Ukraine cover image

Writers under attack: the cases of Ukraine, Nicaragua, Myanmar, and Egypt - with PEN International

Explaining Ukraine

CHAPTER

The Deportation of Writers in Nicaragua in 2022

Writer Serhira Miras is one of over 300 Nicaraguan who were stripped of their citizenship and other rights last month. The move was condemned by Pen International, the Juconda in addition to the release of more than 220 prisoners last February. "We have been expropriated illegally and left with no pensions, no nationality for the crime of writing and expressing our views," she says.

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Speaker 1
She's one of over 300 Nicaraguan who were stripped of their citizenship and other rights last month, a move condemned by Pen International, the Juconda in addition to the release of the Juconda in addition to the release of more than 220 prisoners last February. What was the situation faced by writers in Nicaragua or the Americas in 2022? What can international human rights organizations do to help address this situation? The 222 prisoners were not technically released on February 9th. They were deported to the United States and stripped of their nationality. There could have been a positive step turned into a condemnation of these prisoners who had been jailed for their political views and while in jail kept in isolation and prevented from having any reading or writing materials for more than 600 days. Seven of these prisoners were aspiring presidential candidates in their 2021 elections where Ortega ran and contested. They were declared traitors of their homeland and sent away as stateless persons. The next day a bishop Rolando Alvarez who had refused to board the plane was sentenced without a trial to 26 years in prison for his sermons and his political view. And then on February 16th, 94 additional Nicaraguan were also stripped of their citizenship. Their traitors and furthermore, expropriated of all their possessions, including their retiring pensions. Among the deported 222 were journalists such as Cristiana Pero Pajkin and Chamorro Juan Lorenzo Holman who was the manager of the newspaper La Prenza. The oldest newspaper in Nicaragua who had lasted through all kinds of things was confiscated and closed on 222. We now do not have newspapers in Nicaragua. Also Miguel Mora was the director of a TV channel. Miguel Mendoza who was a sports chronicle and Jaime Reiano. In the batch of the 94 also stripped of their nationality, our journalist Wilfredo Miranda Patricio Rosco, feminist Sophia Monteneiro and Bill Manunes, the leading human rights defender in the country who is 84 and she refused to leave the country and is remaining there and their house arrest. This group also includes writer Serhira Miras and myself. We have been expropriated illegally and left with no pensions, no nationality for the crime of writing and expressing our views. Fortunately, there have been a wave of solidarity, so Spain offered nationality to everybody who had been stripped of it and also other countries like Chile, Argentina, Colombia offered nationality. So that was a very consoling reaction for all these things that have been happening in Nicaragua. So there is no longer independent media in the country. More than 97 journalists are in exile.

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