From the first major siege of Monimbó, here's a report from the frontlines, by @carolinehouck and myself. Today things are different: government forces have finally broken through the barricades and seized this resistance stronghold.

RT @DanielShoerRoth: 📍#SouthBeach: Las nuevas reglas migratorias están vaciando el escenario de @MangosSoBE, el icónico club de Ocean Drive….

RT @haricito: Excellent commentary from @The_Dialogue in their Latin America Advisor, in the run-up to the Argentine elections, insightful….

#Nicaragua has always been a country of poets and idealists, a pluralistic society full of discourse and dissent, a nation with a deep history and a multitude of different founding fathers. Now Nicaragua is closing off, even from itself. The country has become an orphanage.

Nicaragua itself is a victim tonight: deprived of a wealth of minds from all walks of life and all political persuasions, passionate people who championed different segments of Nicaraguan society and who contributed greatly to the nation's vibrant culture.

Many of tonight’s 94 fled into exile years ago as the violence escalated. But others have only their home and homeland in Nicaragua. Some are famous and will be welcomed anywhere, but others could struggle greatly, starting from nothing in a foreign land.

Old heroes, young activists, creatives and thinkers from every discipline, even longtime comrades of Ortega like Rafael Solís, who fought alongside him with the FSLN and served as a Supreme Court Justice—all have been accused of treason + stripped of citizenship. Who will remain?.

Hugo Torres was not among the 222 prisoners or tonight’s 94 new exiles. The mythic “Comandante Uno,” whose daring guerilla raid freed his comrade Ortega in 74, was arrested on similar treason accusations and died in prison last year, still a citizen.

Montenegro, a renowned author and journalist, a Sandinista revolutionary who became a driving force of the feminist movement, was waiting earlier tonight in her flat in Managua for police to arrive, to be stripped of the nationality and nation she has devoted her entire life to.

Luis Carrión, a top comandante of the revolution and Mónica Baltodano, a guerilla who suffered capture, imprisonment, and torture before helping lead the final offensive to victory in 1979 are both listed, as is one of Nicaragua’s preeminent intellectual giants: Sofía Montenegro.

Sergio Ramírez, who once served as vice-president under Ortega, is only one of the historic Sandinistas to lose citizenship. The list also names Vilma Núñez, the Sandinista activist who was tortured and jailed for years by Somoza and championed human rights after the revolution.

Nicaragua’s most acclaimed writers, @GiocondaBelliP& @sergioramirezm, are no longer Nica on paper. Neither are some of the best journalists of their respective generations: @cefeche & @PiruloAr. The decree finds them guilty of spreading false news + undermining national integrity.

Among those exiled tonight from their own country are poets, priests, feminists, journalists, revolutionaries, novelists, human rights defenders, artists, LGBTQ+ organizers, and environmentalists. Ironically, many are also old allies of President Ortega and the ruling FSLN party.

The deluge of news about state abuses and human rights violations in #Nicaragua makes it difficult for observers to notice or take concern over any one story. Incredible Nicaraguans from all walks of life have been killed or imprisoned since 2018. Why pay attention tonight?.

Some of tonight’s 94 newly stateless citizens will also be homeless; the declaration specifies confiscation of their property along with their nationality. They have also been declared fugitives from the law.

New constitutional reforms permit stripping the nationality of any citizens declared “traitors,” which was used last Thursday when 222 political prisoners (everyone from student activists and presidential candidates to campesino farmers) were expatriated.

Nicaragua tonight has w/o warning stripped 94 citizens of their nationality. Among them are historic figures who were imprisoned + tortured under the Somoza dictatorship and Sandinistas who fought to liberate the country--people who shaped the nation they are being thrown out of.

DEA has just been authorized to conduct nationwide covert surveillance on demonstrators, a distressing development amidst the ongoing protests over the death of #GeorgeFloyd, which have already been testing law enforcement's commitment to civil liberties.

RT @aletweetsnews: #NOW: Hundreds are taking a knee and chanting near the White House for a fifth day of protests over George Floyd’s death….

Demonstrators are standing firm against the helicopter’s heavy winds. Many are yelling up at it, expressing anger at what they see as a dangerous form of harassing the protesters. Police cars are lined up tightly all down E street behind them.

Helicopter covering right above the #DCProtest, whipping up an astounding amount of intense wind.