but i think that going back to being a strategic, he is not because he erased with one hand what he wrote with the other. i think that if he had not done things such as keeping prison, bishop alvarez in prison and other 35 political prisoners, stripping us from our nationality and so on. i think that probably dialogue would be on the table from the perspective of the american governments and other governments. but i can be certain that we are not going to see any relaxation of international pressure precisely because 0rtega has proved that he is focused on his own building, his dynasty and on keeping the police state. so 0rtega, if anything, is radicalizing and that needs to be very clear. and yet if one looks at the international reaction to what 0rtega has done, as you say, with the stripping of the citizenship, notjust of the 222 prisoners released, but also another 90 activists who have since had their citizenship taken away from them the latin american
leaderships in countries like mexico, colombia, argentina, brazil have been very quiet, haven t they? have you noticed? i have noticed that, but i have a different perspective. i think that for the very first time in decades, and i can say that myself, as someone who testified in front of the un security council in geneva, at the human rights council as well, and travel latin america, five to seven years ago, it was very hard to mobilize certain people who had previous sympathies to the sandinista revolution. that is not the case any more. it s very clear that the 0rtega of today has nothing to do with the sandinistas of the 1980s and is being abandoned, isolated even by former friends. i think that is very powerful that we have many of the progressive leaders of latin america speaking against him. i understand you. you want the world to see
were a victory. if anything were a victory. it s very hard for him to justify in front of his supporters that we are a criminals who fought against nicaraguan sovereignty, and suddenly we re placed in a plane and sent to the united states and received by, frankly, as heroes, not only by the nicaraguan community, but by the international community as well. and on top of that, given our voices back to continue explaining what the situation in nicaragua is, 0rtega has to work very hard to explain that decision. i think that dictators released political prisoners not because they want to, but because they don t have any other option. let s just talk about what it meant to you personally, getting off that plane in washington. i believe that your wife and your daughter, who s obviously very young, i think she s nine years old, they were able to be reunited very quickly with you when you got off the plane after more than 600 days in very difficult captivity. what was that like?
of what is strategic. and in this case, the strategy means human rights. it means human dignity. a strategy means mobilizing the international community for the reconstruction of a country that is completely kidnapped by the 0rtega family. right. well, we focused on your extraordinary personal story. let s get a little bit strategic in this interview. is there not a case for saying that 0rtega, by doing this mass release of 222 prisoners, including yourself, he is hoping to get something back from the united states, who had been pressuring him to do just this, to release the prisoners. and antony blinken, secretary of state, said this in a statement after yourfreedom, he said, the release of these individuals by the government of nicaragua marks, quote, a constructive step towards addressing human rights abuses in the country. it opens the door to further dialogue between the us and nicaragua. that will be music to 0rtega s ears, won t it? well, absolutely.
reach the united states. are you proposing that in that context, you want to see tougher economic sanctions put on ortega and his regime? economic sanctions, targeted sanctions against the 0rtega inner circle because people in nicaragua is poor precisely because there s a corrupt regime. i understand. and i ve also been very careful in not speaking about economic actions or sanctions that will hurt the poor. i think that that s very important to emphasize. but they do have the poor, mr maradiaga. look, we have to look at the reality. i mean, the united states last year, in response to what they saw as egregious abuses by the 0rtega regime, put new sanctions on the gold mining industry in nicaragua. but if you look at the nicaraguan economy, the gold mining sector is one of the few relative success stories which actually employs thousands of nicaraguans. so, of course, those sorts of sanctions ultimately will hit your fellow citizens. i think that there are types of sanctions, and i per