Between happiness and sadness, some former Nicaraguan political prisoners in the US are already thinking about returning to their country

The Nicaraguan opponent Iván Larios, who was detained by the government of Daniel Ortega for almost a year and a half, thought that when he got out of prison he would be in his country to take to the streets to continue fighting for democracy.

However, yesterday he was released as part of the group of 222 Nicaraguan opponents released by Ortega, but he was sent to the United States, where he must rebuild his life away from his family. Like other opponents releasedit has a sensation between sweet and bitter, he told the voice of america.

Larios assures that he is “happy to be free, but sad to know that the government is stubborn in not accepting the reality” that the Nicaraguan people “continue demanding democracy, seeking their freedom, and it will arrive at some point.”

Away from his family, he confesses that he feels strange in distant lands. It saddens him “to know that the government made the decision to advance its attitude against those of us who are critical, to ignore our nationality,” added the opposition member, a member of the Articulation of Social Movements, who says he was jailed for being president of a non-governmental organization.

On Thursday night, after his arrival in the US, he was seen by the doctor for a bad blood pressure, he said.

Larios was incarcerated for 517 days, of which 122 remained in a hermetic cell, with access to only one partner, he said.

However, he said that he plans to return to his land sooner than the Nicaraguan government imagines, he said. “I am going back. My country is called Nicaragua.”

The same feeling is shared by José Ricardo Muñoz López, a member of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, who was imprisoned for four months.

Muñoz López assures that he will wait for it to finish the humanitarian parole granted by the US for two years to “return to Nicaragua, to defend social justice”.

He also said that in the meantime they will carry out organized demonstrations worldwide to demand the freedom of 38 opponents who are still in Nicaraguan jails.

“I could see the sunrise”

For Evelyn Pinto, a human rights defender and one of those released, waking up in a place other than a cell has been wonderful.

“I slept in a bunk closed with my curtains, it was such a tiny hole, so I felt like I was in a hole. I said: ‘Lord, I can’t see the light, I feel like I’m sinking more and more, but give me strength Give me strength. That gave me more at night, seeing myself reduced to that tiny space,'” the 63-year-old recalled.

Being in the United States and hugging her daughter, “sleeping together and holding each other and seeing that room, it was like a breather,” she said.

“Already, finally, I saw the clarity. In my room I saw the sun at dawn, so the first thing I gave was to pray, to give thanks,” he added.

Among her plans for now is taking care of her grandson and trying to adapt to reality, she added.

Kevin Solís is another of the Nicaraguans who arrived in Washington and will be able to take advantage of this parole extraordinary award from the White House. Speaking to the program Forum of the VOA He explained that none of the 222 released suspected this end and he was grateful for the gesture of the US government to be able to settle in this country.

“Everything was kept very hermetic, we started to get suspicious when they started putting us out in the sun every day of the week. But we had no idea that we would be free”, said Solís.

The young Nicaraguan acknowledged that one of the most emotional moments was meeting other friends and activists on the plane that was going to take them to the US. “It was great because I hadn’t seen them in years, we were all in different prisons. We arrived at the Air Force and from there they put us on the plane, the US embassy officials alone told us that this was over, they are now free,” he says, recalling that “unfortunately not all of them are there because some were kidnapped in Nicaragua ”.

Now Solís hopes to start a new life in the United States thanks to the extraordinary measure promoted by the White House that will allow him to live and work legally in the country, which will also make it possible to obtain permanent residence.

“I hope to get ahead and work, but also to always keep up the fight to continue denouncing the crimes that exist in Nicaragua. There are no longer only 8 or 20 political prisoners, but there are seven million Nicaraguans kidnapped by the dictatorship in Nicaragua”, he said with the hope that “Nicaragua will be free one day”.

The release of the 222 opponents Nicaraguans took place with the facilitation of the United States, indicated the United States authorities, but Ortega denied that there had been contacts between the two governments.

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