More than 200 detained members of Nicaragua's opposition were heading to the United States on Thursday after being freed by the government of President Daniel Ortega, family members and opposition figures said.
"Two hundred and twenty-two political prisoners are coming to Washington, they were freed," Nicaragua's former ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) Arturo McFields said in a video shared on social media.
McFields, who now lives in the United States, stunningly quit his role last year during an OAS permanent council session as he denounced the Ortega "dictatorship."
Javier Alvarez, a Nicaraguan living in exile in Costa Rica, told AFP that his wife and daughter, who also have French nationality, were among those liberated.
A diplomatic source in Managua confirmed to AFP the releases but there has been no official comment from the government.
Hundreds of people were sent to prison in Nicaragua in the wake of anti-government protests in 2018 that were met with a brutal crackdown resulting in 355 deaths and more than 100,000 people fleeing into exile.
Dozens of opposition figures were arrested in 2021 -- including seven presidential hopefuls -- ahead of elections. They were accused of undermining "national integrity."
Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramirez, who was Ortega's vice president during his first mandate in 1985-90, welcomed the releases.
"Today is a great day for the fight for Nicaragua's freedom," Ramirez, who now lives in Spain, said on Twitter.
"They are heading into exile, but they are heading for freedom."
The United States praised the move and said it would welcome the arrivals.
"The decision of the Nicaraguan Government is a positive and welcome one," a State Department spokesperson said.
A firebrand Marxist in his youth, Ortega was a former guerrilla in the Sandinista movement who initially took power in 1979.
He was defeated in 1990 but returned to power in 2007, and has since engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices, quashing presidential term limits and seizing control of all branches of the state.
