{"id":687775,"date":"2026-01-10T23:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T23:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687775\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T23:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T23:49:10","slug":"nicaragua-frees-dozens-of-prisoners-amid-pressure-from-trump-administration-prison-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687775\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicaragua frees dozens of prisoners amid pressure from Trump administration | Prison News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opposition groups say release triggered by \u2018political chess moves\u2019 following US abduction of Venezuela\u2019s Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n

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Published On 10 Jan 202610 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

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Nicaragua\u2019s left-wing government has announced the release of dozens of prisoners following pressure from United States President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

The government of President Daniel Ortega<\/a> said in a statement on Saturday that \u201ctens of people who were in the national penitentiary system have gone home to their families\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The statement did not specify the exact number of people freed, or whether they had been detained for political reasons.<\/p>\n

While the government described the move as a gesture to commemorate 19 years of Ortega\u2019s government, Nicaragua is under considerable pressure from the US over its human rights record<\/a> and a years-long crackdown on opposition leaders and activists.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s prisoner release also reflects the growing pressure that left-wing governments in Latin America face to appease demands from the Trump administration, which has moved to exert greater dominance<\/a> across the Americas region.<\/p>\n

Tensions have soared since the US military attacked Venezuela on January 3 and abducted the country\u2019s president, Nicolas Maduro<\/a>, who is facing US charges of narcoterrorism and drug trafficking, which he denies.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the US Embassy in Nicaragua praised the release of opposition figures<\/a> in Venezuela following Maduro\u2019s removal from power, calling on Ortega\u2019s government to follow suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Nicaragua, more than 60 people remain unjustly detained or missing, including pastors, religious workers, the sick, and the elderly. Peace is only possible with freedom!\u201d the Embassy posted on social media.<\/p>\n

A human rights NGO that tracks political prisoners in Nicaragua identified 19 people released on Saturday, the Reuters news agency reported.<\/p>\n

Opposition leader and former prisoner Ana Margarita Vijil told Reuters that she did not know the exact number of people released, but said the group included a former mayor, Oscar Gadea, and an evangelical pastor, Rudy Palacios.<\/p>\n

Palacios was detained in July after criticising the Nicaraguan government for human rights violations. He had also supported demonstrators who took to the streets<\/a> to demand Ortega\u2019s removal in 2018.<\/p>\n

Ortega responded to those protests with a crackdown that left at least 350 people dead and hundreds detained.<\/p>\n

Liberales Nicaragua, a coalition of opposition groups, praised the prisoners\u2019 release on Saturday.<\/p>\n

They said in a statement that there was \u201cno doubt\u201d that it resulted from \u201cpolitical pressure exerted by the US government on the dictatorship\u201d and \u201cpolitical chess moves triggered by events in Venezuela\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opposition groups say release triggered by \u2018political chess moves\u2019 following US abduction of Venezuela\u2019s Nicolas Maduro. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[32,4582,3274,12,74443,285,18939,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-687775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-human-rights","10":"tag-latin-america","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nicaragua","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-prison","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115873484858774455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}