Nicaraguan Journalist Granted Political
Asylum in U.S.
A Nicaraguan journalist and political
opponent of President Daniel Ortega,
Georgina Lupiac, has been granted political
asylum in the United States.
Lupiac was able demonstrate to the U.S.
Immigration Court that she had in the past
been a victim of persecution and that her
personal safety would be in danger were she
to return to Nicaragua.
Lupiac has been a longtime critic of Daniel
Ortega and his ruling party, the Sandanista
Front for National Liberation (FSLN). In
1990, she published the book, Debió llamarse
libertad, which denounced the Ortega regime.
Lupiac was also a radio correspondent for
Radio Corporación, a Nicaraguan
investigative radio station which has
challenged the legitimacy of elections won
by the FSLN.
In 2008, Lupiac was purportedly threatened
at a protest at the Nicaraguan consulate in
Miami, where she accused the Ortega regime
of electoral fraud. According to a Miami
publication, consulate workers denounced
Lupiac personally over a loudspeaker and
made a threatening reference regarding her
children, who still live in Nicaragua.
The United States immigration court saw this
example, and others that occurred in
Nicaragua, as sufficient evidence that
Lupiac would be in physical danger if she
returned to Nicaragua. By granting political
asylum to Lupiac, the court took the
position that repressive elements do exist
in the Nicaraguan government
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