Nicaragua Torture Sufferer Imprisoned For Second Time After Being Deported By U.S.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Nicaraguan exile who was imprisoned and tortured after protesting in opposition to the federal government was deported by the U.S. again to his nation, the place he was instantly imprisoned as soon as once more by authorities, members of the family and his lawyer confirmed Monday.
Upon climbing off the U.S. deportation flight in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, final week, 35-year-old Jeffrey Jarquín was taken by authorities again to the identical jail the place he was as soon as tortured, confirmed one member of the family.
The member of the family spoke to The Associated Press on the situation of anonymity, fearing persecution by the federal government. Local media first reported on Jarquín’s deportation and detention.
Jarquín was a distinguished determine in anti-government protests in 2018, which set off a yearslong marketing campaign by husband-and-wife co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to crush dissent.
The authorities’s crackdown on critics, civil society, spiritual teams and nearly anybody who raised their voice has fueled the flight of greater than 800,000 folks from the nation, in response to U.N. figures.
Osley Sallent, Jarquín’s lawyer within the U.S., confirmed the Nicaraguan exile was deported after in search of asylum within the United States.
Jarquín was detained in 2018 with different protesters and thrown right into a maximum-security jail referred to as El Modelo. Until he was launched a yr later and fled to the U.S., Jarquín and others had been tortured in chambers referred to as “tiny hell,” in response to a 2019 report by the Organization of American States.
Sallent mentioned Jarquín was residing in Miami when he was detained. Before Jarquín’s asylum case was rejected by a Louisiana court docket in July, Sallent mentioned he was held in Alligator Alcatraz, the Florida immigration detention heart within the Everglades tormented by experiences of harsh situations. Sallent wasn’t capable of present extra particulars of the asylum case.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Following a request by the AP for extra particulars on why Jarquín was imprisoned for a second time, a spokesperson for Nicaragua’s authorities responded: “Thank you very a lot! Hugs.”
The Trump administration has lengthy criticized the Nicaraguan authorities and labeled it a dictatorship, particularly after authorities there canceled elections scheduled for subsequent yr. Just final week, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Landau mentioned in remarks earlier than the OAS that what was occurring in Nicaragua was “insupportable.”
“Murillo and Ortega’s dictatorship has no place in our hemisphere,” he added.
Despite that, ICE has ramped up deportations to the Central American nation in latest months, in response to a latest Human Rights Watch report, which mentioned the Trump administration had deported 6,300 Nicaraguans between January and July 2026.
The group documented that ICE had detained least eight Nicaraguan exiles who had been stripped of their citizenship in a transfer observers say was supposed to punish critics, the report mentioned. Some of these detained had pending asylum purposes.
Juan Pappier, deputy director of the Americas for Human Rights Watch, mentioned the simultaneous criticisms of Nicaragua’s authorities and deportations of these pressured to flee its repression “makes Washington look hypocritical.”
“Nicaragua has probably the most brutal authorities within the Western Hemisphere, and any authorities critic who is distributed again is at actual threat of torture or persecution,” Pappier mentioned.
Associated Press reporter Gisela Salomon contributed to this report from Miami.
