Santiago de Chile, (EFE)
“The Government of Chile will arbitrate the necessary legal means to offer them due international protection, which allows them to reside in the country and obtain Chilean nationality, according to the constitutional and legal norms that regulate it,” the Chilean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Boric condemns Ortega’s regime
Chile is the country in the region that has most forcefully condemned the regime led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo and, with the decision announced this Tuesday, joins Spain and becomes the second country to formally offer naturalization to opponents Nicaraguans.
“The Government of Chile makes this alternative available to those who have been unfairly expatriated from Nicaragua and voluntarily decide to take it,” the statement said.
The Nicaraguan authorities have withdrawn the nationality of at least 317 people in recent days for their criticism of Ortega, who also ordered the exile of 222 former political prisoners, who were released and sent on a plane to the United States on February 9, accused of “treason against the homeland”.
Among the stateless are Ramírez and Belli -both exiled in Spain-, as well as the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the feminist Sofía Montenegro and the legendary ex-guerrilla Dora María Téllez.
Response from progressive governments
“The history of our country has taught us that the defense of democracy and human rights, and international solidarity among peoples, transcend political conjunctures and are part of essential civilizing standards for life in society,” the Chilean government concluded. in the statement.
With the exception of Chile, the progressive governments of Latin America have so far not unanimously condemned the case of stateless Nicaraguans.
Colombia and Mexico have reacted cautiously, Brazil has remained silent and Argentina has slipped this Tuesday that it is “willing” to grant nationality to whoever requests it, but without making a firm offer.
In a message on his Twitter account, Chilean President Gabriel Boric sent on Saturday “a fraternal hug to Gioconda (Belli), Sergio (Ramírez), Sofía (Montenegro), Carlos (Fernando Chamorro) and to all those whom Ortega has claimed strip them of their Nicaraguan nationality.”
“Dictatorship in Nicaragua”
“The dictator does not know – alluding to Ortega – that the homeland is carried in his heart and in his actions, and is not deprived by decree. They are not alone!” added the president, who has spoken on several occasions about the abuses and repression of the regime in Nicaragua.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Antonia Urrejola, was also very critical of the democratic deterioration of the Central American country when she presided over the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2021.
On the same social network, Ramírez, former Nicaraguan vice president and 2007 Cervantes Prize winner, thanked Boric “for embodying dignity and integrity by not keeping quiet about Nicaragua,” while the poet Belli, author of “La mujer habitada,” praised him for “to be consistent and to support a rule of law and the democratic demand in Nicaragua and Latin America.”