What it's like to be a freed Nicaraguan political prisoner

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/23/ [login to see] /freed-nicaraguan-political-prisoner
Félix Maradiaga, 46, has played many roles in life: unaccompanied minor refugee, director of Nicaragua's Office for the Reintegration of Ex-combatants (which he calls "kind of like the Department of Veteran's Affairs"), Secretary General of Nicaragua's Ministry of Defense, investor, researcher, husband, father, and political leader.

After he declared his intention to run for Nicaragua's presidency, he became something else in 2021 — a political prisoner.

Then, he and 221 other prisoners were suddenly released earlier this month. They were surprised to find themselves aboard a chartered flight from Managua, Nicaragua to Dulles International Airport in Virginia. When they landed, they found out Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had stripped them of their Nicaraguan citizenship, leaving them stateless.

Maradiaga spent his first week of freedom in high-level meetings with U.S. officials in Washington. He says: "I've been traveling to Washington for over 20 years, and I have never seen the awareness or the attention that we're receiving now." He has joined his wife and daughter in Miami, Florida.