Written by Diego Vargas, Latin America Correspondent
By Diego Vargas • June 6, 2026 • Latin America
MANAGUA — Nicaragua deported 47 members of the Venezuelan opposition to US custody Thursday under a bilateral agreement that allows Washington to relocate nationals whose presence it deems undesirable. The group — including several former Maduro administration officials — boarded a US military transport at Managua’s Augusto César Sandino airport.
President Daniel Ortega, whose own government faces US sanctions, called the expulsion “a matter of national sovereignty” and said Nicaragua would not be “pressured by empire.” The Trump administration confirmed it accepted the group under a little-used provision of immigration law.
The operation, carried out with US Marshals Service support, was the largest single deportation of foreign nationals from Nicaragua in recent memory. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado called the deportations “a forced exile operation orchestrated by the Maduro-Ortega axis.”
The deportees, all Venezuelan nationals, had entered Nicaragua legally on tourist visas over the past six months, according to a source familiar with the operation. The State Department said it would process their cases under standard immigration procedures and did not confirm whether any would face prosecution.