US secures release of 135 prisoners from Nicaragua

The United States said Thursday it had secured the release of 135 political prisoners from Nicaragua, the latest mass transfer by President Daniel Ortega's increasingly authoritarian government.

The White House said that the prisoners included members of faith organizations, students and others viewed by Ortega and his team as a "threat to their authoritarian rule."

The freed prisoners arrived Thursday in nearby Guatemala, whose reformist President Bernardo Arevalo has worked closely with Washington on the key issue of migration, the State Department said.

They will have the opportunity to seek to move to the United States.

"We urge the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

"The Nicaraguan people want and deserve a restored democracy where all can exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms, free from fear of persecution or reprisal."

The latest move follows the mass release of more than 200 prisoners in February 2023 who were flown to the United States.

The former prisoners have largely welcomed being able to leave, although some human rights activists view Ortega's move cynically, seeing him as trying to get rid of perceived opponents while at least attempting to curry favor with Washington.

The latest release includes 13 members of Mountain Gateway, an evangelical Christian group based in Texas, the White House said.

Nicaraguan authorities earlier this year accused members of the group, which conducts mass gospel campaigns as well as humanitarian work, of money laundering and organized crime.

Mountain Gateway strongly denied the charges, saying that Nicaraguan authorities were able to review its budgeting.

Ortega, a 78-year-old former leftist guerrilla who battled US-backed forces in the 1980s, returned to power in 2007 and initially had been seen as more moderate.

But he has since lifted presidential term limits, seized control of all branches of government and led a sweeping crackdown on groups including the Catholic Church and NGOs seen as threats to his rule.