At least 148 Nicaraguans stranded at Peñas Blancas border enter the country

(TODAY NICARAGUA) Some 148 Nicaraguans who had been stranded for more than 15 days at the Peñas Blancas border, managed to enter the country on Sunday afternoon, August 2, after testing negative for Covid-19.

Of the 169 Covid-19 tests that nongovernmental organizations carried out on stranded Nicaraguans on the Costa Rica side of the border, 148 were negative and 21 positive, reported Raquel Vargas, director of Costa Rica’s immigration on Sunday afternoon.

#Loúltimo Directora de Migración de Costa Rica Raquel Vargas informa que 148 nicaragüenses resultaron negativos en pruebas #Covid_19 y 21 positivos que serán asistidas por ONGs incluyendo gastos médicos https://t.co/c5dRYgSiMV pic.twitter.com/sxdty4f5sr

— 100%NOTICIAS (@100noticiasni) August 2, 2020

With the results of the test in hand, the Nicaraguans finally entered Nicaraguan Immigration, where they took their personal data and gave them a kind of ticket.

In the case of the Nicaraguans who tested positive for Covid-19, they have already been transferred to a shelter prepared by the municipality of the border canton of La Cruz, in Costa Rica, where they will be under quarantine, sources at the scene reported.

“People (who tested) positive are going to receive care through civil society, food and the medical service is going to be run by these organizations. (Costa Rica) Immigration has provided a place for civil society organizations to enter to attend to these people,” Vargas reported.

This test was the requirement that the Daniel Ortega regime required of the stranded to allow them to enter their own country, although various sources assured that it was the responsibility of the State to carry out the exams.

The Nicaragua Human Rights Collective Never + shared a video where several of the stranded people cried in excitement at the knowledge that they could return to their homes.

The Arias Foundation, in Costa Rica, is the one that is coordinating all the logistics involved in taking samples. The resources for the Covid-19 tests come from humanitarian organizations and individuals who responded to the call of the Foundation and the Center for Labor Rights, in addition to the contribution of the Clinica Biblica together with the government of Costa Rica, which has provided the space for the installation of the mobile clinic at the border.

Since Friday, July 31, a team of specialists from the Clínica Bíblica hospital was in charge of taking samples for the molecular tests of 169 Nicaraguans of the almost 500 who are estimated to be stranded.

Not a Cordoba to the regime

“The Covid-19 tests were financed by Costa Rican human rights organizations that work with the immigrant population,” said Braulio Abarca, coordinator of Communication and Public Relations of the Nicaragua Never + Human Rights Collective.

These organizations include the Arias Foundation for Peace and the Center for Labor Rights.

Since the tests were carried out in Costa Rica, the Nicaraguan Government, which established a cost of US$150 for each test, did not receive a single Córdoba for the tests made at the border.

Violation of human rights

Abarca spent three days in the border area and recalled that “the pavement was so hot that it destroyed your shoes.” With temperatures above 38 Celsius, sleeping in the open and under permanent siege by the Orteguista Police, many preferred to venture through blind spots to enter their own country.

According to the monitoring of the Collective, at the beginning, there were more than 500 people stranded in the area, and the lines to use the bathroom lasted up to four hours. 12 requested refuge in Costa Rica and the rest, more than 300, reportedly tried to enter illegally.

For Abarca, the behavior of the Nicaraguan regime is a complete “violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Nicaraguan population.”

Both in article 31 of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua and in article 22 of the American Convention on Human Rights, signed by Nicaragua, “it is determined that no national can be expelled from his country of origin or restricted from entering it. Human rights have their fundamental basis in the dignity of the person and this situation is completely inhumane,” he stressed.