Category Archives: Nicaragua

US court allows Trump officials to end protected status for 60,000 migrants

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Administration officials given legal right to move towards deportation of people from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua

A federal appeals court on Wednesday sided with the Trump administration and halted for now a lower court’s order that had kept in place temporary protections for 60,000 migrants from Central America and Nepal.

This means that the Republican administration can move toward removing an estimated 7,000 people from Nepal whose temporary protected status designations expired on 5 August. The TPS designations and legal status of 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans are set to expire 8 September, at which point they will become eligible for removal.

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Trump ends deportation protections for people from Honduras and Nicaragua

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DHS said it would terminate temporary protected status for an estimated 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans

The Trump administration has ended temporary protections for people from Honduras and Nicaragua in the latest phase of its effort to expel undocumented people from the US.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it would end temporary protected status (TPS) for an estimated 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans in moves that will come into effect in about 60 days.

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Supreme court allows White House to revoke temporary protected status of many migrants

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Ruling reverses hold on Trump administration’s ending humanitarian parole of Venezuelan migrants and others

The US supreme court on Friday announced it would allow the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president’s drive to step up deportations.

The court put on hold Boston-based US district judge Indira Talwani’s order halting the administration’s move to end the immigration humanitarian “parole” protections granted to 532,000 people by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to rapid removal from the country, while the detailed case plays out in lower courts.

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Trump revokes legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans

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Move takes effect on 24 April as president weighs also stripping parole status from some 240,000 Ukrainians in US

Donald Trump’s administration will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States, according to a Federal Register notice on Friday, in the latest expansion of his crackdown on immigration.

It will be effective on 24 April.

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Nicaragua: Ortega and wife to assume absolute power after changes approved

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Loyalist lawmakers give green light to constitutional amendment as authoritarian president, 79, tightens grip

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and his wife are set to assume absolute power after loyalist lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment elevating her to the position of “co-president” and boosting the pair’s joint control over the state.

Under sanctions for human rights abuses, Ortega himself had proposed the change, which also increases the president’s control over the media and extends the presidential term from five to six years.

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Weather tracker: Tropical Storm Sara and Super Typhoon Man-yi wreak havoc

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Powerful storm systems bring heavy rainfall, widespread flooding and landslides to Central America and Asia

Tropical Storm Sara has caused significant disruption across Central America in recent days after forming in the Caribbean Sea on Thursday afternoon. It is the 18th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and the third this month. The large number of tropical storm and hurricane formations this season can be attributed to the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico being warmer than average, thus providing more energy for the development and intensification of these systems.

Since its formation, Sara has affected Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala, bringing heavy rainfall, widespread flooding and landslides. The slow-moving nature of the storm has exacerbated the damage, prolonging the duration of its impact. However, Sara is losing strength; initially it had sustained winds of 45mph on Thursday but weakened slightly after moving inland, with winds dropping to 40mph by Sunday. According to the National Hurricane Centre, Sara is expected to dissipate into an area of low pressure as it moves north-west toward the southern region of the Yucatan peninsula on Monday.

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Brazil cuts ties with Nicaragua as it rethinks links with leftist authoritarians

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Two countries expel each other’s ambassadors amid growing tensions between Lula and Venezuela’s Maduro

Brazil and Nicaragua have expelled each other’s ambassadors in a tit-for-tat diplomatic row, as Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, appears to recalibrate his approach to authoritarian leftist rulers who were once seen as allies.

The dual expulsions this week came amid growing tensions between Lula and another supposedly progressive leader, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, whose claim of re-election the Brazilian president has yet to acknowledge. Lula and his counterparts in Colombia and Mexico have called on Maduro to release voting tallies from all polling stations to support his win.

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Rare birds at risk as narco-gangs move into forests to evade capture – report

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Cocaine traffickers have put two-thirds of Central America’s key habitats for threatened birds under threat, study finds

Cocaine consumption is threatening rare tropical birds as narco-traffickers move into some of the planet’s most remote forests to evade drug crackdowns, a study has warned.

Two-thirds of key forest habitats for birds in Central America are at risk of being destroyed by “narco-driven” deforestation, according to the paper, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Sustainability.

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Nicaragua cancels Chinese plan for controversial canal 10 years on

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Critics said proposal to build canal linking Atlantic and Pacific would endanger environment and rural communities

Nearly a decade after it broke ground on a controversial plan to build a canal linking the Atlantic and the Pacific, Nicaragua has canceled a concession granted to a Chinese businessman to complete the project which critics said would endanger the environment and displace rural communities.

Despite a symbolic “ground-breaking” in 2014, no work was done on the canal that was to link Nicaragua’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts. At one point, crews broke ground on access roads near the canal but digging the waterway never started.

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Israel’s security at core of German foreign policy due to Holocaust, ICJ hears

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Nicaragua asks UN’s highest court to halt German weapons sales to Israel, alleging it is breaching obligation to prevent genocide

Germany has said Israel’s security is at “the core” of its foreign policy because of the history of the Holocaust, but denied accusations at the UN’s highest court that is aiding genocide in Gaza by arming Israel.

Nicaragua has brought a case against Germany at the international court of justice (ICJ) urging judges to order a halt to German weapons sales to Israel, alleging it is in breach of its obligation to prevent genocide and ensure respect of international humanitarian law.

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Nicaragua oppression is ‘tantamount to crimes against humanity’, says report

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UN-backed human rights experts decry the crackdown on dissent by President Daniel Ortega’s administration

UN-backed human rights experts have accused Nicaragua’s government of systematic human rights abuses “tantamount to crimes against humanity”, implicating a range of high-ranking officials in the government of President Daniel Ortega.

The allegations follow an investigation into the country’s expanding crackdown on political dissent. The Ortega government has gone after opponents for years, but it hit a turning point with mass protests against the government in 2018 that resulted in violent repression by authorities.

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Plane detained in France sheds light on Nicaragua’s role in US migrant crisis

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Flight contained 303 Indians en route to Central American country whose light visa requirements have attracted US-bound travelers

The detention in France of a charter plane bound for Nicaragua has renewed attention on the Central American nation’s role as a springboard for migrants from across the world seeking to make their way to the United States.

The flight, which left the United Arab Emirates on 21 December with 303 passengers of Indian nationality, was grounded during a refueling stop after an anonymous tip-off alleging human trafficking.

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Two Guinean children abandoned in Bogotá airport as migrant routes shift

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Migration through the treacherous Darién gap is slowing as less restrictive air routes open up between South and Central America

Two children from the west African country of Guinea who were abandoned in Bogotá’s airport have been taken into government custody after spending several days on their own in the international departures terminal.

Colombia’s national immigration department said the children, aged 10 and 13, had been travelling with separate groups and were left in the airport by their relatives earlier this month for reasons that have not been clarified.

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Miss Nicaragua pageant director quits after police accuse her of treason

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Karen Celebertti retires weeks after Nicaragua’s contestant, who took part in protests in 2018, was crowned Miss Universe

The director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant has announced her retirement from the organization, nine days after police accused her of “conspiracy” and other crimes.

“The time has come for my retirement,” Karen Celebertti wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I know that there will always be more opportunities for us.”

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Nicaragua’s Miss Universe emerges as symbol of defiance against Ortega regime

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‘Nervous’ government has cracked down on celebrations for Sheynnis Palacios in country where ‘repression is absolute’

When Sheynnis Palacios was recently voted Miss Universe, it came as a bolt of good news in Nicaragua. Joyous crowds took to the streets of Managua for the first time since mass protests in 2018 that were put down with lethal force.

The Nicaraguan regime, paranoid about any hint of dissidence, initially congratulated Palacios, but has since cracked down on celebrations – not least because Palacios herself took part in the 2018 demonstrations, and opponents of the regime have taken her up as a symbol of hope and defiance.

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Indigenous party says it is barred from running in Nicaragua elections

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Banning of Yatama party leaves ruling Sandinistas unchallenged in upcoming elections

Nicaraguan electoral authorities have barred an Indigenous party that has clashed with President Daniel Ortega in the past, leaving the ruling Sandinistas with no opposition in upcoming local elections in two regions.

The Yatama party has been disqualified from participating in all future elections, including a local vote scheduled for March, according to a Facebook post by Sammy Allen Cubero, a Yatama youth leader.

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Nicaragua: Ortega crackdown deepens as 94 opponents stripped of citizenship

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Some of country’s most celebrated writers and journalists targeted as critics condemn ‘totalitarian drift’ under 77-year-old president

Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian regime has intensified its political crackdown, stripping 94 Nicaraguans of their citizenship, including some of the Central American country’s most celebrated writers and journalists, among them the Guardian contributor Wilfredo Miranda.

The move was announced by a Nicaraguan judge on Wednesday and sparked renewed condemnation of Ortega’s Sandinista government, which has been waging a dogged offensive against perceived rivals since June 2021.

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‘This is huge’: Nicaragua frees 222 political prisoners and flies them to US

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Daughter of former foreign minister Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa says he is among detainees released, adding: ‘Everybody is on the plane’

More than 200 prisoners jailed by Nicaragua’s authoritarian regime during a ferocious two-year political crackdown have been freed and flown to the United States.

“This is huge,” Georgiana Aguirre-Sacasa, the daughter of one of the prisoners – the elderly former foreign minister Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa – said on Thursday morning as she digested the news of her father’s release.

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Hurricane Julia: Nicaragua braces amid flash flood and mudslide warnings

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Nicaraguan soldiers assist evacuations as up to 38cm of rain forecast across Central America after tropical storm strengthened into hurricane

Hurricane Julia swept by just south of Colombia’s San Andres island on Saturday evening soon after strengthening from a tropical storm, as Nicaraguans rushed to prepare for the storm’s arrival on their coast overnight.

After gaining power throughout the day, Julia’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 120km/h (75mph) by Saturday evening, the US National Hurricane Center said.

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Bolsonaro tries red scare tactics in Brazil election by raising spectre of Nicaragua

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Brazil’s far-right president claims that leftwing rival Lula will repress clergy like Ortega but so far with little apparent success

More than 4,000km and an ideological abyss separate the capitals of Nicaragua and Brazil, where an acrimonious race for the presidency is under way.

But the Central American country has found itself at the centre of Brazil’s election debate as its far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro seeks to weaponise Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian crackdown on the Catholic church to attack his leftist challenger, the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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