- Title: Nicaragua releases prisoners, national dialogue starts
- Date: 27th February 2019
- Summary: MANAGUA, NICARAGUA (FEBRUARY 27, 2019) (REUTERS) MEMBERS OF POLITICAL OPPOSITION AFTER ATTENDING A MASS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEMBER OF NICARAGUAN CIVIC ALLIANCE (POLITICAL OPPOSITION), JUAN SEBASTIAN CHAMORRO, SAYING: "We defined the three fundamental issues for the Civic Alliance in this dialogue, which are freedom for (political) prisoners, the issue of elections and democracy, and the issue of justice. So, for each one of those issues, it is necessary that we count on the support - as a country - the international support of organizations, for example, in the case of elections, we need to count on the OAS (Organization of American States) where there is a signed protocol of electoral reforms." NICARAGUAN MAN, WILDER BONILLA, RECENTLY RELEASED FROM PRISON NICARAGUANS RECENTLY RELEASED FROM PRISON SING ON BUS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEMBER OF NICARAGUAN POLITICAL OPPOSITION RECENTLY RELEASED FROM PRISON, KARLA VANEGAS, SAYING: "They let us out yesterday, at 10:00 a.m. without telling us anything, they took us to the Modelo, we spent the night there without knowing where they were taking us, and we haven't slept. [JOURNALIST ASKED HOW LONG SHE WAS IN PRISON] They gave me six months. [JOURNALIST ASKS FOR WHAT CRIME] Carrying weapons, many things." NICARAGUAN POLITICAL OPPOSITION FIGURE RECENTLY RELEASED FROM PRISON, ALEX VANEGAS, ARGUING WITH POLICE OFFICERS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEMBER OF NICARAGUAN POLITICAL OPPOSITION RECENTLY RELEASED FROM PRISON, ALEX VANEGAS, SAYING: "We need to stay together, everyone unite, because it isn't possible, we already threw (Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio) Samoza out, and we're going after (Nicaraguan President) Daniel Ortega, even if he gets mad and puts me back in prison, I don't care. He can order me to be killed if he wants, but I'm not afraid of Daniel Ortega."
- Embargoed: 13th March 2019 21:45
- Keywords: Daniel Ortega political prisoners protest Nicaragua opposition prison release dialogue
- Location: MANAGUA, NICARAGUA
- City: MANAGUA, NICARAGUA
- Country: Nicaragua
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA003A3D0H8N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The Nicaraguan government on Wednesday (February 27) released dozens of people the opposition considers political prisoners, a human rights group said, hours before government and opposition leaders were due to restart talks aimed at ending a national crisis.
Pablo Cuevas, an attorney for the Permanent Commission of Human Rights, a non-governmental organization, said the detainees began leaving penitentiaries in the morning.
Nicaragua has been in a deep political crisis since President Daniel Ortega attempted social security reform last year, leading to massive protests. The ensuing chaos put the poor Central American nation in recession.
Ortega, a Cold War era former guerilla fighter who won elected office in 2006, unleashed a brutal government crackdown. Some 320 people were killed and more than 600 imprisoned, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Television images showed mini-buses apparently carrying released prisoners in the streets of the capital, Managua. Another rights group said some of the released prisoners would remain under house arrest.
Talks began on Wednesday between the government, business representatives, students and opposition politicians, seeking a resolution to the crisis that has engulfed Nicaragua since last spring. Ortega did not take part.
The government's last attempt at dialog with the opposition was in May, but the talks collapsed when protesters demanded early elections.
The protests faded under the crackdown, but independent journalists, rights groups and political activists report ongoing harassment and arrests that have led many to flee the country. The economy contracted by 4 percent in 2018.
The opposition is calling for electoral reform and justice for those killed in the protests, but the most pressing demand is the release prisoners, opposition leader Angel Rocha said last week.
(Production: Arnaldo Arita, Manuel Carillo, Patrick Alwine) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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