MEXICO CITY — A Nicaraguan exile who was imprisoned and tortured after protesting against the government was deported by the U.S. back to his country, where he was immediately imprisoned once again by authorities, family members and his lawyer confirmed Monday.
Upon climbing off the U.S. deportation flight in Managua, Nicaragua's capital, last week, 35-year-old Jeffrey Jarquín was taken by authorities back to the same prison where he was once tortured, confirmed one family member.
The family member spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, fearing persecution by the government. Local media first reported on Jarquín’s deportation and detention.
Jarquín was a prominent figure in anti-government protests in 2018, which set off a yearslong campaign by husband-and-wife co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to crush dissent.
The government’s crackdown on critics, civil society, religious groups and virtually anyone who raised their voice has fueled the flight of more than 800,000 people from the country, according to U.N. figures.
Osley Sallent, Jarquín’s lawyer in the U.S., confirmed the Nicaraguan exile was deported after seeking asylum in the United States.
Jarquín was detained in 2018 with other protesters and thrown into a maximum-security prison known as El Modelo. Until he was released a year later and fled to the U.S., Jarquín and others were tortured in chambers known as "tiny hell," according to a 2019 report by the Organization of American States.
Sallent said Jarquín was living in Miami when he was detained. Before Jarquín's asylum case was rejected by a Louisiana court in July, Sallent said he was held in Alligator Alcatraz, the Florida immigration detention center in the Everglades plagued by reports of harsh conditions. Sallent wasn't able to provide more details of the asylum case.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Following a request by the AP for more details on why Jarquín was imprisoned for a second time, a spokesperson for Nicaragua's government responded: “Thank you very much! Hugs."
The Trump administration has long criticized the Nicaraguan government and labeled it a dictatorship, especially after authorities there canceled elections scheduled for next year. Just last week, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in remarks before the OAS that what was happening in Nicaragua was "intolerable."
“Murillo and Ortega’s dictatorship has no place in our hemisphere,” he added.
Despite that, ICE has ramped up deportations to the Central American country in recent months, according to a recent Human Rights Watch report, which said the Trump administration had deported 6,300 Nicaraguans between January and July 2026.
The organization documented that ICE had detained least eight Nicaraguan exiles who were stripped of their citizenship in a move observers say was intended to punish critics, the report said. Some of those detained had pending asylum applications.
Juan Pappier, deputy director of the Americas for Human Rights Watch, said the simultaneous criticisms of Nicaragua's government and deportations of those forced to flee its repression “makes Washington look hypocritical.”
“Nicaragua has the most brutal government in the Western Hemisphere, and any government critic who is sent back is at real risk of torture or persecution," Pappier said.
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Associated Press reporter Gisela Salomon contributed to this report from Miami.