Arrest of Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano by ICE sparks calls to distinguish between criminals and political exiles

The exiled Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano, 48, and director of the news program Café con Voz Nicaragua, will be transferred to the Baker Correctional Institution, located in Sanderson, in Baker County, Florida.

Galeano was arrested this Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Orlando while working as an Uber driver. The information was confirmed by his wife, Deykell Santamaría, via a phone call after she received the details from the authorities.

According to the report provided by the family and shared by sports journalist and former Nicaraguan political prisoner Miguel Mendoza, the journalist will remain in custody at the facility in northern Florida until his preliminary hearing before an immigration judge, scheduled for October 2.

Galeano left Nicaragua in December 2018 to save his own life in the face of an arrest warrant issued by the judiciary serving the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

In February 2023, the Sandinista regime declared him "a traitor to the homeland," arbitrarily stripping him of his Nicaraguan citizenship and ordering the confiscation of his assets along with those of 93 other opposition figures, academics, and religious leaders.

Reactions in exile and warnings regarding his status as a politically persecuted person

Galeano's career includes work at El Nuevo Diario, the EFE news agency's bureau, and the 100% Noticias television channel, whose facilities were confiscated by the Nicaraguan National Police.

His arrest on U.S. soil prompted immediate expressions of solidarity from civil society organizations, journalists, and members of the opposition in exile.

Opposition leader Juan Sebastián Chamorro urged federal authorities to give due consideration to the journalist's status as a political refugee, emphasizing the imminent danger to his safety that a potential deportation order to his country of origin would pose.

The statement by Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar

The case quickly escalated to the federal political level in Washington. The Republican congresswoman from Florida, María Elvira Salazar, issued an official statement in which she asked the Trump administration to carefully examine the journalist's background before making any procedural decisions.

"The United States must always know how to distinguish between a criminal and a political exile," the lawmaker emphasized in her statement.

"I have been very clear with the administration: we must enforce the law and remove from this country those who pose a danger, but we cannot treat as criminals those who fled a dictatorship for defending freedom."

Salazar insisted that Galeano's case file must be reviewed immediately, taking into account the systematic persecution he has suffered at the hands of the Managua regime. The journalist's family and his legal representatives are awaiting the completion of the formal procedures leading up to the court hearing scheduled for early next month.