By John McPhaul

Exiled Miskitu leader Anexa Alfred Cunningham was guarded in her celebration of the release of Brooklyn Rivera (Miskitu) on Friday, August 29, 2024, saying that she still did not have confirmation that the top leader of the Miskitu political party, Yatama, was among the 135 Nicaraguans whose release the U.S. State Department secured in negotiations with the dictatorial regime of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Alfred Cunningham is an expert member of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), a subsidiary body of the United Nations Human Rights Council. “We are still waiting for confirmation. Until we have full confirmation we cannot completely celebrate,” said Alfred Cunningham, from her exile in Geneva, Switzerland. “We are celebrating the release of the other leaders among them human rights leaders.”

Brooklyn Rivera was disappeared under the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega for close to a year. Rivera, 72, who fought against the Sandinistas in the 1980s but became an ally of the Ortega regime once it retook power in 2006, fell victim to the recent crackdown by Ortega on virtually every non-governmental institution in the country.

The released prisoners were taken to Guatemala where they will be allowed to apply for residency in the United States and rebuild their lives. “Those released include human rights defenders, Catholic laypeople, and 13 individuals affiliated with Mountain Gateway, a Texas-based religious organization. Nicaraguan authorities unjustly detained these individuals for exercising their fundamental freedoms of expression, of association and peaceful assembly, and of religion or belief.  All of them must now undertake the tremendous challenge of establishing their lives in a new country,” said the U.S. State Department in a press release.

Alfred Cunningham noted that the release of the 135 prisoners did not mark a change in Ortega’s dictatorial ways. “There are still others in prison whose release has not been secured yet.”

Alfred Cunningham also noted that in recent days Ortega has enacted legislation to try exiled leaders in absentia.”This is in accord with his policy of terror and fear and the transnational mechanism that we have been denouncing including the red alert of Interpol and the use of extradition requests,” said Alfred Cunningham.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Eric Jacobstein, speaking with reporters, said that the Nicaraguan government received nothing in exchange for the prisoners’ release and the negotiation signaled no change in U.S. policy toward the government of President Daniel Ortega.

“Though the pressure itself has been consistent, the planning and execution of this release was rapid, and we’ve worked quickly to facilitate the travel of these individuals and really ensure their safety at every step of the journey,” Jacobstein said, adding that Nicaragua continues to “unjustly” detain people.

Photo: LA PRENSA/Cortesía.