The tortuous history of U.S.-Nicaragua relations

The tortuous relationship between Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and the U.S. took another step recently, when 222 political prisoners in the Central American nation were taken by surprise in the middle of the night and carried onto a plane that deported them to Washington.

After landing on U.S. soil and being stripped of their nationalities, the prisoners complained of physical and psychological abuse from Nicaraguan guards and extended periods of time in solitary confinement, all based on accusations of foreign backing or plotting against the regime. 

Human rights organizations and the U.S. government had been calling out the persecution and mistreatment of Mr. Ortega’s critics following the ban of most opposition candidates in the build up to Nicaragua’s 2021 election.

The U.S. was not alone, with many others in the region denouncing Mr. Ortega, including left-leaning administrations in Chile and Colombia. 

But in Mr. Ortega’s eyes, the only foreign enemy that mattered was the U.S. “We ask for nothing in return from the U.S. government, not even that sanctions are lifted,” the Nicaraguan president said, after deporting the prisoners. In his view, he was just sending “those who were used [by the U.S.] to sow terror, death, and destruction in Nicaragua” back to where they belong. 

And while U.S. involvement behind the scenes would not take away from the fact that Nicaraguan elections were neither clean nor competitive — nor that critics have increasingly suffered from all kinds of state abuse in Managua — Mr....