Podcast: Stripped of Nationality in Nicaragua, Then Detained by ICE | The Lighthouse

This is the transcript of episode 89 of the weekly El Faro English podcast, Central America in Minutes.

GRESSIER, HOST: In an interview last July, Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano said he deliberately decided to seek asylum in the United States, rather than in Costa Rica, for his own safety.

GALEANO: Some people asked, why didn’t you go to Costa Rica? Because I’ve always been aware that Costa Rica is just a few steps away from Nicaragua. While it’s true that it brings you the familiar scent of home, that proximity also makes it easy for the regime to reach you.

GRESSIER: Seven years ago, in 2019, Galeano filed for asylum in the United States. On Monday, September 14, he was detained by agents of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

I’m your host, Roman Gressier. On today’s episode: In Florida, a Nicaraguan journalist is detained by ICE. In Costa Rica, an exiled Nicaraguan peasant survives an assassination attempt. In Panama, police admit to infiltrating unions and social movements.

From the studios of El Faro English, this is Central America in Minutes.

Nicaraguan journalist in ICE custody

On Monday, Nicaraguan journalist and asylum seeker Luis Galeano was arrested in Florida by ICE agents while on the job as an Uber driver, reports Leyrian Colón Santiago.

“In violation of our nation’s laws, he overstayed his welcome. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” the Department of Homeland Security told Nicaraguan journalist Tifani Roberts.

After the 2018 protests in Nicaragua, Galeano fled into exile with his family in Miami. The following year, he applied for asylum after the Ortega-Murillo regime issued an arrest warrant.

In February 2023, Nicaragua revoked Galeano’s citizenship along with 93 other journalists and opposition figures.

According to exiled Nicaraguan outlet Confidencial, two days after Galeano’s arrest, former Nicaraguan political prisoner Denis Palacios was arrested by ICE agents in Virginia.

Palacios was one of another group of 223 political prisoners who were stripped of their citizenship and forcibly sent to the United States in 2023. The Biden State Department called the operation “Nica Welcome”.

Under the Trump administration, exiled Nicaraguan journalist Miguel Mendoza reported that at least nine of the political prisoners expelled in 2023 have now been detained by ICE.

The arrests have caused a stir among Florida Republicans. “The United States must always be able to differentiate between a criminal and a political exile,” said Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar.

In late 2025, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stopped processing asylum cases. In March 2026, USCIS announced that it would pick them back up, except for those from applicants from 40 listed countries. Nicaragua was among the countries whose applications were again under review.

According to the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, in June, a federal court in Rhode Island ruled that the suspension of asylum processes for the 40 countries was illegal. The government appealed, and the process is moving slowly.

The TRAC Clearinghouse at Syracuse University reported that, in June 2026 alone, 94 percent of asylum cases were denied.

Human Rights Watch reported that, between 2018 and mid-2025, more than 342,000 Nicaraguans sought asylum abroad, mostly in the US, Costa Rica, and Mexico.

Nicaraguan exile shot in Costa Rica

Next to Costa Rica, where Nicaraguan refugees reckon with a string of assassination attempts. Reinaldo Picado, another opponent of the Ortega-Murillo regime, was shot on September 14, reports Yuliana Ramazzini.

Picado is an exiled peasant leader and former member of the Contras, the US-backed anti-communist rebels from the 1980s. Confidential reported that he was shot in San José, Costa Rica. He moved there in 2018 when he fled into exile.

The Nicaraguan Exiles Unit (UEN) told the Spanish wire service EFE that Picado was renovating a property when a vehicle pulled up, two people tried to enter, and shot him at least three times.

In October 2022, Picado was arrested in Costa Rica on an extradition request from the Nicaraguan government, which accused him of killing a police officer and a civilian. He asserts that he was almost turned over irregularly in 2023.

But the Costa Rican government backpedaled in 2025 and let him go as a refugee after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures to protect his life.

In June of this year, I survived first attack. Chopped told Confidential that the perpetrators knew where he lived. The second attack put him in the hospital in San José, under the protection of Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency.

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Recent attacks against Nicaraguan refugees in Costa Rica led many to leave the country.

In June 2025, retired Major Roberto Samcam was murdered on his doorstep. Samcam warned Costa Rican authorities of espionage networks tied to the Ortega-Murillo regime. He said he feared for his life.

Samcam’s murder follows two others, as well as a double assassination attemptagainst Nicaraguan refugees. Jaime Luis Ortega, another peasant leader with the Contras, was murdered in October 2024 near the Nicaraguan border.

2018 protestor and former Sandinista combatant Rodolfo Rojas was found dead in 2022, after being drawn out from Costa Rica to Honduras.

Political opposition member Joao Maldonado and his wife were attacked in Costa Rica in 2024, after suffering a previous assassination attempt three years earlier.

The collective called Nicaragua Ahora Más, or “Never Again,” has documented more than 200 cases of repression against Nicaraguan exiles. It has also documented nine executions in Honduras and Costa Rica from 2019 to 2025.

The Costa Rican government has not commented on the attacks against Picado and Maldonado, or the murders of Samcam, Ortega, and Rojas.

Police infiltration of Panama unionists

In Panama, unions and social organizations uncovered a police espionage operation aimed at breaking resistance to major mining projects and other policies under President José Raúl Mulino, an ally of US President Donald Trump, reports Gabriel Labrador.

In a recent podcast interview, José Víquez, a leader of the SUNTRACS union, detailed the scope of the surveillance.

VÍQUEZ: Phone calls were tapped and police officers infiltrated unions. Surveillance was highly meticulous. According to information that we confirmed, officers tracked leaders, monitored their families, noted where their children worked or studied, and cataloged their properties.

GRESSIER: On September 10, the Panamanian National Police confirmed that officers were actively deployed in surveillance operations targeting social organizations.

An official statement maintained that these individuals were “covert agents” operating strictly within the law to preserve national security and public order.

Civil society organizations responded sharply. They countered that, while legal frameworks allowed covert operations, these mechanisms were unlawfully targeting them.

The organizations published a 120-page dossier detailing the identities, ranks, and roles of officers embedded in protest movements since 2023. Union leaders accuse undercover agents of encouraging violence and property destruction to discredit demonstrations.

They allege that surveillance was concentrated in regions targeted for national economic initiatives, such as the Cobre Panamá mine in Colón, and the Río Indio basin, where proposed reservoir construction to supply the Canal with water threatens to displace around 2,500 residents.

This year, the International Trade Union Confederation listed Panama among the ten worst countries for workers’ rights.

Panamanian organizers identified the visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February 2025 as a turning point. Government authorities notified prominent labor groups like SUNTRACS that they would be subject to financial audits.

The unionists further allege that four specialized intelligence analysts were tasked with building criminal case files and manipulating evidence against prominent organizers.

President Mulino has called the SUNTRACS union a “mafia.” Just ten days after Rubio’s visit, security forces violently clashed with unionists outside the construction of a children’s hospital in Panama City, leading to the arrest of more than 500 individuals on disputed charges.

But the greatest issue of national dispute are Trump’s repeated threats to “take back the canal.” US officials have repeatedly warned that if Panama did not reduce Chinese influence, they would take action on treaty grounds.

This episode was written by Leyrian Colon Santiago, Yuliana Ramazziniand Gabriel Labrador. Editing by Roman Gressier and sound design by Omnionn.

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