Nicaragua: Practice and procedure for issuance of exit visas and passports; are these procedures circumvented, and if so, how? (August 1988 to September 1989)

1) Detailed information on the procedures for obtaining exit permits is not currently available to the IRBDC. However, information received from External Affairs Canada indicates that people must apply for exit permits at the Nicaraguan Immigration office located in Managua. [ External Affairs Canada, 12 October 1989.] Passport applications may be filled out at Nicaraguan embassies abroad. [ The information on passport procedures is also obtained from External Affairs.] The fee charged varies. For example, Nicaraguans applying for a passport in Canada or the United States must pay US$ 100 (payable by Money Order). Although this source was not aware of the current passport fee in Nicaragua, the U.S. Department of State Country Reports maintains that in September 1988, the passport fee was increased to the equivalent of US$40. [ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, February 1989), p. 651.] The applicant must submit seven photos; four from the front, and three from the side. They must also submit a birth certificate and the old passport if they have it.

2) Information on the methods for circumventing the official procedures to obtain exit permits or passports is not currently available to the IRBDC.

Prior to the promulgation of the constitution in January 1987, the Statute of the Rights and Guarantees of the Nicaraguan People provided "Nicaraguans [with] the right to enter and leave the country freely" (Article 15), but this could be suspended in time of emergency or "for reasons of public order and security of the state" (Article 49). There were some restrictions on travel under the state of emergency, although "it does not appear that the right to leave is systematically denied, and several opposition leaders have chosen voluntary exile or emigration." [ Hurst Hannum, The Right to Leave and Return in International Law and Practice, (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1987), p. 87.] The 1987 Constitution, which replaced the Statute, guarantees the right to travel and to freely enter and exit Nicaragua (Article 31).

Despite these guarantees, some Nicaraguans have experienced difficulties in obtaining the required permits and many left without the necessary travel documents. For example, exit visas have often been denied young men of draft age [ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, p. 651.] and after the Law of Patriotic Military Service (conscription) came into effect in 1983, many young men fled the country, paying up to US$1,000 for counterfeit birth certificates, passports, and visas. [ "Barricada on Illegal Travels to United States", Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Latin America, (16 February 1989), p. 22.] (The Military Service Law is temporarily suspended until the February 1990 elections). [ "Obstacles to Nicaraguan Elections Removed", The Christian Science Monitor, 9 August 1989.] In the past, there reportedly "have been some instances where departures of politically prominent persons have been at least temporarily delayed." [ Hannum, p. 87.] A United Nations' report asserts that the Nicaraguan government has used direct restrictive measures to discourage emigration, [ United Nations, Report on the Fifth Population Inquiry Among Governments, (United Nations, 1984), p. 184.] and another source maintains that the Nicaraguan government "blocked the departure from the country of opposition political leaders." [ Alan Dowty, The Contemporary Assault on Freedom of Movement: Closed Borders, (New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1987), p. 187.] The U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988 observes that opposition members are limited to single-exit visas. [ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, p. 651.] One source reports that government officials and medical doctors also required special permission to travel abroad. [ Dowty, p. 171.] In addition, at least one person has been charged with treason, and sentenced to ten years in prison for assisting a relative in "leaving the country illegally". [ Amnesty International, Central America Summary, p. 9. The person detained was the brother of Jose Alvaro Baldizon, the Interior Ministry Special Investigator who defected to become a star witness for the U.S. State Department in 1985-86. Americas Watch subsequently discredited much of his testimony, and also protested the Nicaraguan government's detention of his brother as a "reprisal" measure.]

Please see the attached:

-               "Barricada on Illegal Travels to United States", Barricada {Editorial Report}, [Managua, in Spanish], (FBIS-LAT-89-031), 16 February 1989, p. 22.