Two public employees planning to travel to the US through the humanitarian parole program met with unexpected obstacles: one was denied a passport, and the other was threatened.
HAVANA TIMES – Two Nicaraguan government employees were forced to abandon their intentions to travel to the United States through the humanitarian parole program. One was denied a passport, and the other was threatened by her superiors when she told them she was planning to resign and accept the parole offer.
“Martha” [assumed name] has worked for a Managua public agency since December 2023. She found a sponsor for the US humanitarian parole program, and without informing her immediate bosses, applied for a passport in January 2024.
“I paid the passport fee, and up until then everything was going well. Eight days later, when I returned (to the Immigration office) to pick it up, they told me it wasn’t ready yet. I returned two more times, only to receive the same response,” Martha told Confidencial. Suspecting she was being given the runaround for some reason, she asked for a review of her case.
State workers can’t leave Nicaragua
“An agent at the Immigration office took me back to his office, and explained that the passport was ready, but that he couldn’t give it to me because I hadn’t notified my superiors that I was planning to travel. He told me that everyone who worked for the government must give notice of any plans to travel,” Martha stated.
In Nicaragua’s public agencies, or institutions like the Supreme Court or the National Council of Universities, they’ve distributed memorandums informing the workers they can’t leave Nicaragua without explicit authorization. Some have been stopped and interrogated at the border posts when they’ve tried to leave the country, even after they resigned.
In Martha’s case, she says that the Migration agent’s explanation “frightened” her greatly. She confirmed that they maint
