The United States has secured the release of 135 political prisoners held in Nicaragua, including students and members of a faith organisation.

In a statement on Thursday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the prisoners were among the thousands of Nicaraguans caught up in a multiyear rights crackdown by the government of President Daniel Ortega.

The prisoners were sent to neighbouring Guatemala and could relocate from there to the US, according to Sullivan.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo’s office confirmed a plane carrying formerly detained Nicaraguans had landed in the country early on Thursday.

“No one should be put in jail for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights of free expression, association, and practicing their religion,” Sullivan said in a statement.

He said the political prisoners had been arrested because they were considered a threat to the “authoritarian rule” of Ortega and his vice president and wife, Rosario Murillo. He called on Nicaragua to “immediately cease the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens for merely exercising their fundamental freedoms”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also hailed the release in a post on the social media platform X.

“Nicaraguans deserve democracy and freedom from persecution in their home country,” the top diplomat wrote.

The announcement comes two days after the United Nations Human Rights Office released a report saying that Ortega’s government continues to “persecute not only those who express dissenting opinions but also any individual or organisation that operates independently or does not fall directly under their control”.

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