Luis Manuel Chavarría is detained in Florida and could be deported to Nicaragua. Reporters Without Borders says Spain must act quickly to protect the journalist, who holds Spanish nationality.
Luis Manuel Chavarría Galeano could be sent back to Nicaragua after being detained in Florida. Reporters Without Borders says the journalist would face serious danger there because of his independent reporting and previous persecution. The organisation is urging Spain to intervene before his immigration hearing on 2 October.
Chavarría is being held at Baker Correctional Institution after his arrest in Orlando on 14 September while working as an Uber driver. He is the director of the radio programme Café con Voz. His case has become a consular matter for Madrid because Spain granted him nationality in 2025.
The Committee to Protect Journalists described Chavarría as an exiled Nicaraguan journalist and called for his release after his detention in the United States.
The Spanish government approved that nationality through the naturalisation-by-charter procedure under Royal Decree 449/2025 of 3 June. The measure was published in the Official State Gazette on 4 July 2025. RSF has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Spanish Consulate General in Miami to activate all available protection and consular assistance mechanisms immediately.
RSF wants Washington to be formally informed that Chavarría is a Spanish citizen and an exiled journalist. It is also asking Spanish diplomats to seek an alternative to removal to Nicaragua. If the United States orders his expulsion, the organisation says the government should examine ways to facilitate his transfer to Spain.
The risk identified by RSF is tied to Chavarría’s record in Nicaragua, rather than to his current work in Florida.
The February 2023 nationality-stripping order affected 94 people, including prominent figures such as Sergio Ramírez, Gioconda Belli, Silvio Báez, Vilma Núñez, Carlos Fernando Chamorro and Luis Carrión. The episode illustrated the breadth of the Ortega-Murillo government’s pressure on opposition figures, journalists and human-rights defenders.
He left Nicaragua in 2018 after repression intensified against social protests and independent media. In February 2023, Nicaraguan authorities stripped him and 93 other citizens of their nationality and labelled them “traitors to the homeland”. RSF says those circumstances make a return particularly dangerous for a journalist forced into exile after exercising his profession.
The request focuses on two Spanish institutions with direct tools at their disposal: the foreign ministry and the consulate in Miami. RSF wants them to communicate Chavarría’s legal status to the United States and pursue a diplomatic solution that prevents his return to Nicaragua. The broader question of protection for people in exile has also appeared in a related exile case.
Spain’s position is especially significant because the nationality decision was issued only months before the detention described by RSF. That does not determine the outcome of the US immigration proceedings, but it gives Madrid a concrete consular basis for action. The organisation’s request is specific: protect Chavarría in Florida, oppose his deportation to Nicaragua and prepare a route to Spain if removal becomes unavoidable.
The timeline underpins RSF’s call for immediate diplomatic involvement. Chavarría fled Nicaragua after repression, later received Spanish nationality and is now facing detention and a possible return to the country he left. RSF wants Spain to use its consular and diplomatic instruments before the 2 October hearing, rather than waiting until a deportation order has been issued.
