In an unprecedented move in the modern history of international law, Nicaragua has stripped more than 300 dissident citizens of their nationality in the last two weeks. 222 of these citizens were deported to the United States on 9 February (see here), with the Managua Appeals Court (Tribunal de Apelaciones) removing their nationality the day after (see here), i.e. after the fact. Other 94 citizens, most of them already in exile, have been the object of a similar judicial farce which culminated in a decision of the same Court on 15 February (for the surreal appearance of Presiding Judge Ernesto Rodríguez Mejía see a 7 min video here; for the official website of the judiciary see here). In a spontaneous show of solidarity Spain, now followed by two Latin American States (Argentina, Chile), offered these persons their nationality (see here and here).
Political persecution by a family-run dictatorship
The General Secretariat of the Organisation of American States (OAS) reacted with a strongly worded statement to the deportation, which sums up the current situation in Nicaragua aptly:
What happened today is not … a “liberation.” These people were unjustly imprisoned -some for years- for thinking, expressing, or writing opinions contrary to the prevailing regime in Nicaragua. Many of them were tortured and cut off from all contact with the outside world. This group of people has now been sentenced in trials without any guarantees for alleged “treason against the homeland” and “incitement to violence, terrorism and economic destabilization,” among other alleged crimes. They were stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality and all their citizenship rights “in perpetuity.” They arrive in the United States supposedly “deported” from their own country.
The crimes committed against these people must not go unpunished, and their rights 99 acres database must be restored as soon as possible. In Nicaragua there are still people imprisoned and tortured for thinking differently, there are still people who live daily in fear of being arrested, tried and sentenced without any legal or procedural guarantees. The Nicaraguan regime continues to be oblivious to the principles of democracy and respect for human rights, and we must continue denouncing its abuses.
[T]here is still a long way to go until all Nicaraguans, without exception, can once again enjoy freedom in their own country.
As to the other 94 dissidents, the judicial decision, essentially identical to the indictment (acusación), does not contain concrete acts imputed to these persons. Instead, it refers, inter alia, to a conspiracy against the “national integrity” (“conspiración para cometer menoscabo a la integridad nacional”) as well as to highly nebulous offences “against the peace, sovereignty, independence and self-determination of the Nicaraguan people, inciting to destabilization of the country” (“en perjuicio de la paz, soberania, independencia y la autodeterminación del pueblo nicaraguense, incitando a la desestabilización del país”) and to “trafficking with the honor of the country” (“traficando con la honra de la patria”) which the accused “committed and continue to commit” (“ejecutaron y continúan ejecutando”). What is punished here with the deprivation of nationality and other sanctions (inter alia confiscation of assets) is nothing else than the continuous criticism of the Ortega/Murillo dictatorship by these citizens, among them (see here) well-known novelists as Sergio Ramirez and Gioconda Belli as well as politicians, diplomats, judges and church representatives, many of them once part of the Sandinista revolution and movement in its early days. In short, this is a clear-cut case of political persecution by a family-run dictatorship which has concentrated all power in the president (former revolutionary Daniel Ortega) and his wife vice-president (Rosario Murillo) and systematically undermined the rule of law, fully controlling and using the judiciary for its political objectives (see here, here and HRC Res. 49/3 of 31 March 2022 establishing a Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua).