Madrid/This Friday, the Spanish Government granted nationality by letter of nature to 46 Nicaraguans exiled or stripped of their citizenship by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, among them political opponents, activists, journalists and human rights defenders.
The measure, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE)contemplates the granting of Spanish nationality by an exceptional means, reserved for people in whom special circumstances occur.
Among the beneficiaries are Medardo Mairena Sequeira, one of the main leaders of the Nicaraguan peasant movement, as well as the student leader Cristhian Rodrigo Fajardo Caballero and the lawyer María del Socorro Oviedo Delgado, who participated in the defense of opponents and was arrested in Nicaragua in 2021.
Quinto Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios, journalist and son of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and journalist Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, murdered in 1978, also received Spanish nationality. Chamorro was exiled to the United States in February 2023 along with 221 other political prisoners released by the regime.
The Spanish Executive justified the decision “in response to the exceptional circumstances that occur in these people”
Among the beneficiaries there are also former political prisoners sent to Guatemala in September 2024 and journalists who had to leave Nicaragua due to political persecution and who are in a situation of de facto statelessness.
The 46 decrees were approved by the Council of Ministers last Tuesday, October 20, at the proposal of the head of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, and signed the next day by King Felipe VI.
The Spanish Executive justified the decision “in response to the exceptional circumstances that occur in these people.” The concessions must meet the requirements and deadlines established in the Civil Code to produce effects.
According to the Spanish organization Civio, with these new concessions there are 214 Nicaraguans exiled, political prisoners or expelled from their country to whom Spain has granted nationality by letter of nature since 2023, when Madrid offered this possibility to the victims of the repression of the Ortega and Murillo regime.
