MANAGUA (Reuters) -Nicaragua’s government freed more than 200 political prisoners, local media and family members said on Thursday.
A family member of one of the prisoners told Reuters they were being transferred to the United States.
President Daniel Ortega’s administration has detained dozens of opponents, journalists and religious figures in recent years, sparked by anti-government protests in 2018.
The Ortega government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Local media site Confidencial Digital said that among those released are prisoners who had been in the Modelo prison for more than two years, and prisoners housed at El Chipote prison or under house arrest.
It added that hundreds of prisoners were taken from their cells on Wednesday night, and boarded buses that took them to an unknown destination.
(Reporting by Ismael Lopez; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Chizu Nomiyama)
