Nicaragua

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Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega speaks during the inauguration ceremony of a highway overpass in Managua, Nicaragua, Thursday, March 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga) ** FILE **

Daniel Ortega Nicaragua crackdown forces Silvio Baez into exile

By Frederic Puglie — Special to The Washington Times

FILE - In this July 28, 2018 file photo, Jairo Bonilla, leader of the April 19 student movement, wearing a T-shirt designed with a hashtag that reads in Spanish: &quot;We are not criminals,&quot; during an interview in Managua, Nicaragua. &quot;For us as exiles there is no guarantee that we could return and nothing would happen to us.&quot; said Bonilla, Monday, 15, 2019 who now lives in Costa Rica, in response to Nicaragua's government announcement that it will implement a program to guarantee the safe return of exiles. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco, File)

Nicaragua gov’t says it will guarantee safe return of exiles

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

FILE - In this May 6, 2018 file photo, Managua's auxiliary Roman Catholic Bishop Silvio Báez prays during a Sunday Mass at the the Sacred Heart church in Managua, Nicaragua. Pope Francis has asked Báez, one of Nicaragua’s most outspoken bishops, to come to Rome for an undetermined period of time, church officials said Wednesday, April 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)

Bishop asks Nicaraguans to ‘fight for freedom’ in speech

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

FILE - In this May 6, 2018 file photo, Managua's auxiliary Roman Catholic Bishop Silvio Báez prays during a Sunday Mass at the the Sacred Heart church in Managua, Nicaragua. Pope Francis has asked Báez, one of Nicaragua’s most outspoken bishops, to come to Rome for an undetermined period of time, church officials said Wednesday, April 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)

Pope calls Nicaragua bishop critical of government to Rome

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

Prisoner Franklin Perez, 29, hugs his son and his mother Lidia in his home after he was released to house arrest, in Managua, Nicaragua, Friday, April 5, 2019. Perez is among the 50 people released Friday who had been jailed for protesting against President Daniel Ortega's government. However charges were not dropped against the demonstrators. Instead they were for the most part transferred to a form of house arrest, short of the unrestricted freedom that the opposition has demanded. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)

Nicaragua releases 50 prisoners to house arrest

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

In this March 29, 2019 photo, Nicaraguan exile, who wishes to only be identified by her nickname &quot;La Profe&quot;, Spanish for &quot;the teacher&quot;, begs for spare change in Alajuela, Costa Rica. She fled during the so-called Operation Cleanup launched by Daniel Ortega last July, which the United Nations has termed a “witch hunt” aimed at suppressing dissent. She holds a sign with a message that reads in Spanish: &quot;I am Nicaraguan and I need 5 or 10 colones to be able to buy food and pay for a roof to sleep under. Hands that give are never empty. May God bless Costa Rica and Nicaragua.&quot; (AP Photo/Carlos Gonzalez)

Fate in limbo, many Nicaraguan exiles struggle in Costa Rica

By MARIO NEGRINI and MARIA VERZA - Associated Press

Pope Francis delivers a blessing from his studio's window overlooking St. Peter's Square during the Angelus noon prayer at the Vatican, Sunday, March 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis prays for Nicaragua, victims in African attacks

Associated Press

Young men wave national flags during a protest demanding the government release hundreds of protesters held in custody since 2018, in Managua, Nicaragua, Saturday, March 16, 2019. Nicaragua's government banned opposition protests in September and police broke up Saturday's attempt at a demonstration. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)

Nicaragua government, opposition to discuss prisoner release

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

Alex Vanegas holds on to the iron bars he had installed on the porch of his apartment to symbolize his home arrest in Managua, Nicaragua, Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Grasping the iron bars, Vanegas is taken back to the dark prison cells where he spent the previous four months talking to fellow inmates through holes in the walls that also let in rats, scorpions and cockroaches, arrested for protesting against the government of President Daniel Ortega. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)

Nicaragua ‘marathon man’ protester defiant from house arrest

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2018 file photo, the President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice-President Rosario Murillo preside a rally in Managua, Nicaragua. President Ortega said Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, that he will restart talks with his opponents, seven months after the last round of dialogue broke down and the government unleashed a round of arrests. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)

Nicaragua opposition leaves talks until prisoners released

Associated Press

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2018 file photo, the President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice-President Rosario Murillo preside a rally in Managua, Nicaragua. President Ortega said Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, that he will restart talks with his opponents, seven months after the last round of dialogue broke down and the government unleashed a round of arrests. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)

Nicaragua reveals peace talks agenda, doesn’t budge on vote

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

Police stand guard in a neighborhood as negotiations between government and opposition delegations begin in Managua, Nicaragua, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. Representatives of President Daniel Ortega and the opposition sat down face-to-face in a restart of long-stalled talks on resolving the country’s political crisis Wednesday, shortly after authorities released dozens of people arrested in last year’s crackdown on anti-government protests. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)

Ortega rep: ‘Every effort’ being made in Nicaragua talks

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

Apostolic Nuncio Waldemar Sommertag answers questions after long-stalled talks on resolving the country's political crisis restarted, during a press conference in Managua, Nicaragua, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. The talks come shortly after authorities released dozens of people arrested in last year's crackdown on anti-government protests. From left are government representative Chancellor Denis Moncada, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes and Civic Alliance representative Mario Arana. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)

Nicaragua’s government, opposition wrap up 2nd day of talks

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2018 file photo, the President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice-President Rosario Murillo preside a rally in Managua, Nicaragua. President Ortega said Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, that he will restart talks with his opponents, seven months after the last round of dialogue broke down and the government unleashed a round of arrests. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)

Nicaragua talks on crisis begin, dozens of prisoners freed

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2018 file photo, the President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice-President Rosario Murillo preside a rally in Managua, Nicaragua. President Ortega said Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, that he will restart talks with his opponents, seven months after the last round of dialogue broke down and the government unleashed a round of arrests. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)

New peace talks in Nicaragua raise hopes, but many skeptical

By GABRIELA SELSER - Associated Press

In this Oct. 15, 2018 photo, Darling Perez shows a copy of a Nicaraguan government wanted poster in which she is listed, during an interview in Miami. Perez, a pediatrician, worked at a public hospital in Nicaragua and was told not to take care of patients who were hurt during protests. She refused and began helping wounded students at private clinics. Perez, her husband and 12-month-old baby, all of whom arrived in the U.S. on tourist visas, are now seeking asylum in the U.S. (AP Photo/Gisela Salomon)

With unrest at home, some Nicaraguans flee to the US

By GISELA SALOMON and CLAUDIA TORRENS - Associated Press

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2008 file photo, journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, who runs the Communication Research Center, Cinco, is surrounded by the police as a search warrant is carried out at Cinco's facilities in Managua, Nicaragua. The prominent Nicaraguan journalist announced in a video posted Monday, Jan. 21, 2019 to his Confidencial Facebook page that he had taken “the painful decision to go into exile to ensure my freedom and physical safety, and above all to carry on independent journalism from Costa Rica.” (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, File)

Top journo who fled Nicaragua says nation’s press threatened

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN - Associated Press

In this Jan. 8, 2019 photo, 28-year-old lawyer Francys Valdivia Machado, president of the Madres de Abril Association, holds a picture of her 24-year-old brother Franco who was killed during an April 2018 protest against social security cuts in Esteli, Nicaragua, during an interview with Associated Press journalists in an undisclosed location in Mexico where she is in hiding. She believes he was both shot by a sniper firing from City Hall. Fifteen minutes before Valdivia was shot, he had denounced authorities' use of force against peaceful protesters on a video on Facebook holding what appeared to be a rubber bullet in his hand. (AP Photo)

Mothers of slain Nicaraguan students unite to seek justice

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN - Associated Press

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega arrives to the Supreme Court for the inauguration ceremony of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. Maduro will be sworn in to a second term amid international calls for him to step down and a devastating economic crisis, but with some long-time friends in attendance both from abroad and at home. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Nicaraguan supreme court justice resigns in protest

Associated Press

In this Dec. 14, 2018 photo, National Police officers walk inside office of the independent media outlet Confidencial, in Managua, Nicaragua. “All Nicaraguans are vulnerable to the possibility that they fabricate charges from the laws they (the government) invented,” the founder of Confidencial, Carlos Fernando Chamorro says. “No one is safe here. The law protects no one because in Nicaragua there is not rule of law.” (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)

Nicaragua’s Ortega pushes ahead with crackdowns on dissent

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN - Associated Press