97.5% of consular procedures for exiled Nicaraguans end without a favorable response

75% of those surveyed considered that obtaining a new nationality represents the main path to recovering their legal security. /(Illustrative image Infobae)97.5% of the consular procedures of Nicaraguans in exile received no favorable response or was denied, according to a study presented on Wednesday, October 21 in Madrid, which shows how the lack of documents leaves hundreds of people with no possibility of regularizing their situation outside Nicaragua. The survey included 41 Nicaraguans residing mainly in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Spain and Guatemala. Only one person reported having obtained a positive result in their dealings with diplomatic missions, Divergentes reported. The survey was prepared by the Central American Association for Democracy and Development and Refugees International, and was presented during the discussion "The statelessness of Nicaraguans: human impact and responses from Spain and the European Union." 48.7% of those surveyed avoid going to Nicaraguan consulates for fear of reprisals against them or their relatives who remain in Nicaragua. Another 24% tried to return to the country but were denied entry. 48.7% of Nicaraguans in exile avoid consular offices for fear of reprisals against their relatives in Nicaragua. /(Illustrative image Infobae)The research recorded six cases in which airlines prohibited Nicaraguan citizens from boarding due to instructions that, according to the study, came from the Sandinista regime. The digital questionnaire was applied between September 2025 and January 2026 and included 21 variables, with multiple-choice questions and open-ended responses. Most respondents consider that the most urgent way to recover legal security is not to renew their Nicaraguan documents, but to obtain a new nationality. 75% pointed to obtaining another citizenship as the main response to their situation, compared to 46% who prioritized renewing documents issued by Nicaragua. The difficulty in obtaining passports, certificates and other papers occurs in a diaspora that grew after the April 2018 protests and the subsequent state repression. In 2021, the UN Refugee Agency estimated that more than 108,000 Nicaraguans had left the country since the start of the crisis; two-thirds went to Costa Rica. FILE: Around 800,000 people have left Nicaragua since 2018 due to persecution and the need for international protection from the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, according to United Nations experts./(Photo by Cesar PEREZ / El 19 DIGITAL / AFP) A communication from United Nations experts published in 2025 raised the scale of the exodus: around 800,000 Nicaraguans had left the country since 2018, many of them out of fear of persecution and in need of international protection. The organizations describe this situation as "de facto statelessness": people who formally retain Nicaraguan nationality but are unable to renew their passport or obtain essential documents when they need them in the countries where they reside. The phenomenon is distinct from the denationalizations applied since February 2023 by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against opposition figures, journalists, human rights defenders, religious figures and other critical voices. On February 9 of that year, 222 political prisoners were released, sent to the United States and then stripped of their nationality. Six days later, another 94 people were denationalized, according to Divergentes. In September 2024, 135 political prisoners were released and transferred to Guatemala. Five days later, the Nicaraguan justice system ordered their nationality revoked and their assets confiscated. The regime's hostilities also reach religious leaders in Nicaragua. /(EFE)The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights counted 453 Nicaraguans stripped of their citizenship and exiled between February 2023 and September 2024. Of that total, 153 were leaders of political or social movements or human rights defenders, while 44 belonged to religious communities. The IACHR considered that these decisions constituted an arbitrary deprivation of nationality and warned that they were accompanied by asset confiscations, cancellations of civil registries and other restrictions of rights. José Denis Cruz, a Nicaraguan journalist exiled in Spain and general coordinator of the Central American Association for Democracy and Development, linked the lack of documentation to a policy of state persecution. "The migration crisis and the forced displacement of Nicaraguans is not a temporary phenomenon, but the result of a deliberate policy of persecution and dismantling of legal identity by the Ortega and Murillo regime," he said in statements collected by Divergentes. During the meeting in Madrid, the organizations asked the Spanish government to resolve the request for nationality by letter of naturalization submitted by a group of Nicaraguan journalists exiled in a situation of de facto statelessness. Nicaraguan journalists in exile requested from the Government of Spain the granting of nationality by letter of naturalization, with the support of press associations. /(Illustrative image Infobae)"We ask Spain to urgently address the formal request for nationality by letter of naturalization submitted by the group of Nicaraguan journalists exiled in de facto statelessness," Cruz said. The request has the support of the Madrid Press Association and Reporters Without Borders. Recently, Spain granted nationality by letter of naturalization to 46 Nicaraguans, including peasant leaders, human rights defenders, journalists, activists and released political prisoners, as a protection measure against political persecution and the arbitrary loss of nationality imposed by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Spain has also received 1,400 Nicaraguan refugees from Costa Rica through the National Resettlement Plan. For the two organizations, these measures do not cover those who retain Nicaraguan nationality in the records but cannot access the documentation they need. The Central American Association for Democracy and Development and Refugees International asked the European Union and its member states to coordinate protection mechanisms, relax documentary requirements, harmonize procedures among European countries and guarantee safe pathways for people without effective protection from Nicaragua.