Miami (February 17, 2023) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo of Nicaragua for stripping more journalists of their nationality and calling them "traitors to the homeland."
The order of stripping of nationality and expropriation of assets issued by Ortega this week affects journalists Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of Confidencial and Esta Semana; Wilfredo Miranda, a contributor to El País, Spain; Lucía Pineda, 100% Noticias; Luis Galeano, Café con Voz; Jennifer Ortiz, Nicaragua Investiga; Patricia Orozco, Onda Local; Manuel Díaz, Bacanal Nica; Álvaro Navarro, Artículo 66; David Quintana, Boletín Ecológico; Aníbal Toruño, Radio Darío; Santiago Aburto, BTN Noticias; Jimmy Guevara, Criterios; Sofía Montenegro, Silvia Nadide Gutiérrez and Camilo de Castro Belli, according to the organization Journalists and Independent Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN, in Spanish).
Last Friday, journalists Miguel Mendoza, Miguel Mora, Manuel Antonio Obando, Wilberto Artola, Sergio Cárdenas, Cristiana Chamorro, and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, members of the board of La Prensa, and Juan Lorenzo Holmann, general manager of that newspaper and regional vice-president for Nicaragua of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, were also affected by the same measure. They were part of a 222 group who arrived on a charter flight to Washington, DC.
IAPA President Michael Greenspon, global director of Licensing and Print Innovation of The New York Times, United States, said: "We condemn these measures. The expropriation of journalistic assets and the stripping journalist is of their nationality is unacceptable but not surprising for this regime which continues to rank near the bottom of our Chapultepec index, which ranks countries on their actions affecting freedom of speech and the press."
The IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information chairman, Carlos Jornet, editor of La Voz del Interior, Argentina, referred to the warnings that the IAPA had been making since 2018 about "the intentions of the regime when it approved a battery of laws to muzzle press freedom and freedom of expression and to deepen its totalitarianism."
Since then, the IAPA has been denouncing as unconstitutional and in violation of international law, the Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents, the Special Law on Cybercrimes, and the Law for the Defense of the People's Rights to Independence, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination for Peace. On February 9, the National Assembly (pro-government and hegemonic) argued on this last law to reform the Constitution and strip Nicaraguan nationality from violators of this provision.
IAPA continues to insist before the international community that the European Union, the United States, and other democratic countries of Latin America condemn the regime and take appropriate measures to neutralize the attacks on human rights and individual and social liberties of all Nicaraguans.
IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere; and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.
IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere; and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.
