The White House announced on Thursday it has "secured the release of 135 unjustly detained political prisoners in Nicaragua, on humanitarian grounds." The group includes 13 members of a Texas-based missionary organization Mountain Gateway.
"Catholic laypeople, students and others who Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo consider a threat to their authoritarian rule," are among the rest of the released, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan added in a statement.
The New York Times recalled that the Mountain Gateway pastors were arrested in December after "completing an eight-city evangelical crusade that cost $4 million and was attended by nearly a million people." They were sentenced to between 12 and 15 years in prison and fined about $1 billion.
The document added that those released will travel to Guatemala, from where they will be able to "apply for lawful ways to rebuild their lives in the United States or other countries through President Biden's Safe Mobility Office initiative."
"President Biden and Vice President Harris are grateful to President Arévalo for his continued leadership across the region in addressing humanitarian issues and championing democratic freedom. The United States again calls on the Government of Nicaragua to immediately cease the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens for merely exercising their fundamental freedoms," the statement concludes.
The released are among thousands who have been imprisoned for opposing Ortega. It initially targeted dissidents but then expanded its scope to include organizations like Mountain Gateway. In fact, the country's regime-aligned Congress passed a law allowing domestic courts to rule against people and organizations that are promoting sanctions against the government.
The reform can see prison sentences of up to 30 years imposed for the crime of "undermining national integrity." Ortega's regime has shut down about 5,500 NGOs since protests against him began in 2018. He claims they are a U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow his government. Over 300 people have died since, according to the United Nations.
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