Sergio Mena’s life dissolved in hours. After spending years resisting the regime led by the dictator Daniel Ortegathis rural activist fled Nicaragua in 2018, joining thousands of protesters fleeing a prolonged crackdown on dissent.
Mena returned from exile in the neighbor Costa Rica in 2021 to continue protesting, only to be sent to a prison where he said jailers hung inmates by their feet and electrocuted them.
“We were tortured the entire time, from the moment we arrived until the last day, psychologically or by beatings”said Mena, 40 years old.
Now in exile in Guatemala, Mena may be out of prison, but she is far from free. After his release, he and hundreds of religious leaders, students, activists, dissidents and journalists were declared “stateless” —stripped of their nationality, homes and government pensions.
The United Nations says they are among 4.4 million stateless people around the world who struggle to find employment, education and healthcare or even open bank accounts or get married without valid identity documents.
“Statelessness is torture”said Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough, executive director of United Stateless, a US-based organization that advocates for stateless people. “You legally cease to exist, even if you are here physically as a human.”
In September, the regime Ortega put Mena and 134 other prisoners aboard a flight that took them to Guatemala. They joined 317 other people whom the government has deemed adversaries who no longer deserve legal Nicaraguan identities.
The Associated Press spoke with more than 24 Nicaraguan exiles who have been stripped of their nationality and are trying to chart paths forward. They are scattered throughout United States, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico and Spain in limbo as they struggle to recover from the physical and psychological trauma, extending the torture that many suffered in Nicaragua.
The Ortega regime did not respond to a request for comment from the AP.
Most stateless people around the world are born to refugees and migrants in countries that do not offer birthright citizenship, the right to become a citizen if you are born within a country’s territory.
Many Nicaraguans struggle to raise enough money to feed themselves. Others are hiding out of fear that the Nicaraguan government will one day come for them. Many more are reeling as their lives fall apart. For those stranded in USA or seeking refuge there, the promises of the president-elect Donald Trump of tightening immigration and asylum policies have added more uncertainty.
The Ortega regime began stripping people of their nationality early last year.
It was in that repression that Mena, a member of a rural activist movement, said he was imprisoned. The regime claimed that he had participated in drug trafficking and organized crime, which he denies.
In February 2023, the government violated international law when it began sending prisoners to the United States and more recently to Guatemala. Others in exile were stripped of their citizenship without ever being imprisoned.
The Nicaraguan regime has not explained why it released Mena and others from prison, although experts have speculated about a desire to avoid international criticism and the costs involved while continuing to maintain control over enemies.
Mena lives in a hotel Guatemala Citywhere he flips through photos of a ruined prison, leftover food, and his bruised and battered body—indelible memories of more than two years in prison. His life is marked by constant fear.
“Their tentacles (the Nicaraguan government) reach here,” he said with tears in his eyes.
The government of the American president Joe Biden has offered temporary protections to Nicaraguans and Mena hopes the U.S. government will grant him asylum, but those protections will likely disappear or be severely restricted under Trump. The Spanish government has offered to grant nationality to some of the stateless exiles, but few have the resources necessary to build a new life in Spain, or are confused about the process.
Allan Bermúdez, 54 years old, he was a university professor in Nicaragua. He was imprisoned following accusations that he conspired against the government while Ortega identified universities as hotbeds of anti-government protests.
In February 2023, he was among 222 prisoners loaded onto a flight to the United States without knowing where they were going. While the U.S. government provided Bermudez and others with temporary support — a few days in a hotel, a new phone, $400 and limited access to help from a group of NGOs — the aid has since dried up.
Today, Bermúdez, who has multiple advanced academic degrees, works in a Dunkin’ Donuts on the outskirts of Salisbury, Maryland, struggling to get more working hours.
He rents a small room, suffers from chronic heart problems and post-traumatic stress disorder, and has no medical care.
“I didn’t even buy medicine because I’ll be left without food.”said.
Back in Nicaragua, his mother suffered a stroke this year. He has struggled to send money home. With his daughter and wife also at home, he suffers from anxiety and depression.
He requested asylum in February after living in the United States under humanitarian parole offered by the Biden administration, but said he has not received a response. He has placed all his hopes in building a life in the United States and does not know what he will do if asylum does not materialize.
“I can’t get out of where I am. “My hands are tied.”said. “I just ask the Lord to help me.”
Like Bermúdez, hundreds of thousands have fled Nicaragua. Thousands of civil society organizations have been shut down, their assets confiscated as the government seeks to silence any dissent.
While many Nicaraguan exiles hope to one day return to their country, Moses Hassan82, has lost hope while hiding in a town in the mountains of Costa Rica.
Hassan was once a guerrilla against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza and then, together with Ortega, a member of the board that succeeded him. He built a family and a home with thousands of books, and planned to live there for the rest of his days.
He was elected mayor of the capital, Managuabut saw his life and hopes sour when he began to criticize Ortega’s anti-democratic moves. He fled the country in 2021. While traveling to visit his daughter, he heard that the government was detaining critics and knew they would come for him.
It was no surprise when his name appeared on a list of people who had been stripped of their nationality and home and called traitors.
“The message is… ‘Don’t think that because you are out of the country you are beyond our reach’”he pointed out.
But she said that with her pension confiscated along with her belongings, it has been a shock to rely on her children’s money.
He and his wife remain in their corner of Costa Rica, too scared even to go to the capital, where they fear Ortega’s agents may track them.
“I feel like I’m in house arrest”he said, cradling his worn and now useless Nicaraguan passport.
(With information from AP)
