The Nicaraguan journalist Luis Galeano, director of the program Café con Voz, was detained by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while working as an Uber driver in Orlando, Florida.
Noticias Telemundo reported this Tuesday that Galeano was able to briefly communicate with his wife, Deykell Santamaría, after being detained.
The communicator, detained this Monday according to Confidencial 30, left Nicaragua in December 2018 and continued his journalistic work from exile through digital platforms.
Calm down, I'm being detained by ICE, Galeano told his wife during the first call, as Santamaría recounted to Telemundo.
He also asked her to contact her lawyer and journalists to make the incident known.
The woman explained that that first conversation lasted only about 15 seconds.
Another report from Expediente Público specified that Galeano called around 9:50 in the morning and stated that he didn't know exactly where he was, except that he was at a station.
Hours later, a second communication confirmed that the journalist would remain in custody and would be transferred to Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, Baker County, while awaiting an immigration court appearance.
His hearing was set for October 2nd, his wife confirmed.
Galeano, at the age of 48, has an active and pending asylum process in the United States, according to Confidencial.
Journalists and figures from the Nicaraguan opposition have urged U.S. authorities to take into account the history of persecution that led to their exit from the country and to ensure due process.
The journalist left Nicaragua in December 2018, after a judge in Managua issued an arrest warrant against him and other communicators linked to 100% Noticias.
Galeano had also worked at the now-defunct newspaper El Nuevo Diario and served as a writer for the Agencia EFE delegation in Nicaragua between 2004 and 2006.
In February 2023, Nicaraguan authorities included him in a list of 94 citizens stripped of their nationality and declared "traitors to the homeland," a measure that also affected journalists, writers, human rights defenders, and opponents, most of whom reside outside the country.
The case of Galeano is similar to that of Colombian journalist Estefany Rodríguez Flores, who was arrested by ICE in March while she had an open immigration process in the United States.
The reporter from Nashville Noticias, who covered social, police, and immigration issues, was detained in Tennessee and taken to a detention center, while her lawyers questioned the legality of the procedure.
ICE stated that he remained in the country illegally and had not attended two immigration interviews, claims that his defense disputed.
Rodríguez entered the United States in 2021 on a tourist visa and later applied for asylum while also attempting to obtain residency through her husband, a U.S. citizen.
El arresto de Luis Galeano es uno más de los casos que reflejan el endurecimiento de las operaciones de ICE en Florida. Sigue todos los detalles y novedades en nuestra sección de
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