Daniel Ortega to the United States: “We are not asking for the sanctions to be lifted” | Nicaraguan | Political prisoners | Managua | Rosario Murillo | Kevin Sullivan | Rolando Alvarez | WORLD

The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortegasaid Thursday that he is not asking USA to lift the sanctions against government officials, after the release and expulsion to the North American country of 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners.

“We are not asking for the sanctions to be lifted”, assured the president from the Olof Palme convention center, in Managuawhere he went flanked by the high military and police command, as well as representatives of the other powers of the State.

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“We are not asking for anything in return”, Ortega said in the act broadcast by the national chain, and in which he celebrated that now in Nicaragua there are no “putschists”, “terrorists", neither "mercenaries”.

For Ortega, the release and expatriation to the United States of the 222 prisoners was a fact "amazing”.

He recalled that on different occasions he had raised this scenario, such as on November 8, 2021 when he called "sons of bitches of the yankee imperialists” to imprisoned opponents and suggested that “They should be taken to the United Statesbecause, in his opinion, "They stopped being Nicaraguans, they have no homeland”.

Rosario Murillo spoke with the ambassador

And the occasion arose."some days ago” when his wife, the vice president Rosario Murillowhich he called "co-chair”, phoned the US ambassador in Managua, Kevin Sullivanwho had planned a trip to his country, and suggested that Washington take in the prisoners.

“It's not about negotiating anything”, clarified Ortega, who now described the political prisoners as “victims of imperialist policies, who use them, finance them, arm them, and then send them to look for how to destroy the peace of a country, like the one Nicaragua had been enjoying until April 2018″.

The Sandinista leader said he did not expect a positive US response to the request, which, he stressed, was done without asking for anything in return.

Ambassador Sullivan first told them that he was going to consult with the White House and then he asked them how many they were going to release, and his government replied that everyone, including the Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Alvarezwhich in the end he did not accept.

“We do not want any trace of the empire's mercenaries to remain in our country”, he added.

List was 228, ended at 222

Washington asked for a list of prisoners and said they would all be taken away on a single flight Thursday.

MORE INFORMATION: Bishop imprisoned in Nicaragua refused to go to the US, says Ortega

Ortega reported that the US asked what interest his government had in the release and expulsion of the prisoners: “none, we told him”.

“Here there has been no negotiation. that should be clear”, he insisted.

The Sandinista leader said that they sent Washington a list of 228 prisoners and the White House vetoed four of them, including one, Eliseo de Jesus Castro Baltodanowho had been imprisoned in the United States and then deported in February 2006 for violence against women.

The other three banned were Walter Antonio Ruiz Rivera, Jaime Enrique Navarrete Blandon and the lawyer Jose Manuel Urbina Lara.

“They told us they couldn't. They didn't give us reasonsOrtega explained.

The list ended at 224 prisoners, 222 of them traveled, because two of them did not want to get on the plane: Bishop Rolando Álvarez and Alejandro Ramosthe latter also convicted of drug trafficking.

“Thank God the miracle happened”

Therefore, according to Ortega, his government unilaterally decided to release the prisoners to send "a message for peace, for stability, so that the Nicaraguan people are convinced that everything we do is to ensure peace”, and that the US has not been “asked for absolutely nothing”.

“This is not a hack; I give you this and you give me that”, maintained the president, for whom the prisoners “they are returning to a country where they have been used by their rulers”.

“Thank God the miracle happened. We have recovered the peace that we are enjoying. Now that the coup plotters and mercenaries have left, we breathe peace, thank God”, he concluded.

ALSO SEE: Political prisoners found out by plane that they were being expelled from Nicaragua to the United States.

The Organization of American States (OAS) demanded this Thursday that the Ortega government restore the rights of the 222 political prisoners expelled to the United States.

Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth in a row and second along with Murillo as vice president, with their main contenders in prison or in exile.