US says it secured release of 135 Nicaraguan political prisoners

# US says it secured release of 135 Nicaraguan political prisoners

The United States says it has secured the release of 135 political prisoners from Nicaragua, ending one more chapter in President Daniel Ortega’s long crackdown on dissent.

Al Jazeera reported on September 5 that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced the release of prisoners who had been held by the Nicaraguan government and transferred to neighboring Guatemala. From there, they could relocate to the United States. Guatemalan officials confirmed that a plane carrying the formerly detained Nicaraguans had landed early on Thursday.

The released group included students and members of a faith-based organization, according to the report. Sullivan said the prisoners had been targeted because they were seen as a threat to Ortega’s rule and to the power exercised by Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo. In Washington’s telling, the release is a humanitarian success. In Managua’s, the detentions are part of a broader strategy to suppress political and civic life.

The move comes against the backdrop of a newly released UN human rights report that described continued persecution of dissenting voices and institutions operating outside state control. The report cited abuse inside detention and wider pressure on civil society. That makes the prisoner release less a sign of political opening than an exceptional transfer within a system still defined by repression.

The report also places the 2024 release in historical context. Nicaragua’s crackdown began with the 2018 student-led protests over social security reforms and has since widened to include opposition candidates, clergy, NGOs and activists. The country has seen mass arrests, exile and the closure of thousands of organizations.

Among those released this week were 13 members of the Texas-based evangelical group Mountain Gateway, which had been accused by Nicaraguan authorities of money laundering and organized crime. The group denies the charges. Earlier prisoner releases, including a 2023 flight to the US, show that such transfers can become part of a recurring pattern rather than a lasting policy shift.

That pattern is politically important. Rights observers generally welcome freedom for detainees, but they also warn that Ortega uses releases to empty the country of dissenting voices rather than to allow them to return to normal civic life. This episode fits that concern closely.

For now, the verified fact is that 135 prisoners are out of custody and headed through Guatemala. What remains unchanged is the broader system that put them there in the first place.