Nicaragua Ratifies Amendment That Strips Nationality of “Country Traitors”

Nicaragua’s National Assembly (Parliament) approved the amendment in the second of the two legislatures Political Constitution which it establishes Nicaraguan Punishment for imputed offences “Betrayal to the Country” Nicaraguans will lose their national status, the State Department announced this Friday.

This Constitutional reform The approval was given a day earlier during a special session held in In commemoration of the 157th anniversary of the birth of Dario City of the universal poet Ruben Dario (1867-1916), the legislative branch indicated in a statement this Friday.

“I would say, it’s time-tested, that life has allowed us to come and put that seal (Nicaraguans stripped of their nationality) here (in front of the house) where Ruben Darío was born,” declared the president of the parliament, Sandinista Gustavo Porras, according to that power of the state.

Porras highlighted the anti-imperialist, nationalist and revolutionary position of the poet, considered the “prince of Castilian letters” and the father of literary modernism.

that The constitutional amendment was approved In the first two conditions February 9, 2023, the same day 222 Nicaraguan prisoners were freed and deported to the United States.Among opposition leaders, Sandinista dissidents, clergy and critics of President Daniel Ortega’s government.

The amended article, 21, which, to be constitutional, needed to be approved in two legislatures (parliamentary sessions), establishes that “the acquisition, loss and recovery of nationality shall be regulated by law.” Traitors to the motherland lose their status as Nicaraguan citizens. .”

A day later, on February 10, and despite the fact that the constitutional reform was not in force, the Nicaraguan authorities stripped him of his nationality. 222 are considered political prisoners Those who were released from prison and deported to the United States by humanitarian organizations, and sentenced as “traitors to the country”.

He Managua Court of AppealsControlled by The SandinistasIt ordered the deprivation of nationality of 222 Nicaraguans based on the “Special Law Governing the Loss of Nicaraguan Nationality”, which had also been approved the day before.

Special law governing damages Nicaraguan nationality Establishes that “those convicted in accordance with the provisions of the Law for the Protection of the Rights of the People to Self-Determination for Freedom, Sovereignty and Peace, published on December 22, 2020, shall lose Nicaraguan nationality.”

222 Nicaraguan prisoners, including 7 who tried to challenge the incumbent president for the presidency, were permanently disqualified from holding public office, popularly elected office, and had their citizenship rights suspended for life.

Five days later, Nicaraguan authorities stripped the writers Sergio Ramirez and Gioconda Belli, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Baez, former commander of the revolution Luis Carreon and 90 other Nicaraguan dissidents and critics of Ortega of their nationality, after being indicted. Crimes considered “treason”, i.e. without final punishment established by law.

Stateless Persons also observed that Nicaragua’s political constitution establishes in its Article 20, which has not been amended, that “no citizen shall be deprived of his nationality. The quality of being a Nicaraguan national shall not be lost by acquiring another nationality.” .

Nicaragua has been undergoing a political and social crisis since April 2018, which worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term and a fifth term with his wife Rosario. Murillo., as vice president, with his main contenders in prison or exile.