Colombia offered nationality to Sergio Ramírez, a symbol of the more than 300 Nicaraguan opponents who were stripped of their citizenship by the Daniel Ortega regime, Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva reported on Wednesday.
“Interpreting the solidarity of the country and the sentiment of President Gustavo Petro, I offered Colombian nationality to the Nicaraguan politician, intellectual and writer Sergio Ramírez,” Leyva announced in a statement from the Foreign Ministry posted on Twitter.
“Excited, Ramírez accepted it gratefully. Free and democratic Colombia embraces him and welcomes him to his second homeland,” he added.
Leyva, former Colombian president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos, and former Spanish president Felipe González met yesterday with Ramírez in Madrid, where he has resided since 2021.
The former Nicaraguan vice president (1985-1990) is among the 94 opponents, including prominent politicians, human rights defenders, religious leaders, businessmen and journalists, who on February 15 a court in Nicaragua deprived of their nationality, calling them “traitors to Homeland”.
A week earlier, the Nicaraguan government had stripped the citizenship of another 222 imprisoned opponents, releasing them and expelling them to the United States.
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Despite the fact that Ramírez fought against the Somoza dictatorship (1937-1979), in a revolution that brought the Sandinistas to power, Ortega lashed out at him and other critics, especially after the protests that broke out against his government in 2018.
The Petro government has expressed its concern about Ortega’s measures.
Spain and Argentina have shown themselves willing to naturalize the 316 Nicaraguan opponents declared stateless, while Chile is studying offering them residence and nationality.
In addition to Ramírez, a 2017 Cervantes Prize-winning writer, the list also includes writer Gioconda Belli, Catholic bishop Silvio Báez, former guerrilla commanders Luis Carrión and Mónica Baltodano, and human rights activist Vilma Núñez.
Ortega, a former guerrilla in power since 2007, has been successively re-elected in elections questioned by the international community.