Luis Galeano, a veteran journalist from Nicaragua who has been living in the United States since 2018, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while driving for Lyft in Florida on Monday morning. According to his wife, Daykel Santamaría, Galeano has maintained a pending asylum application for approximately seven years and holds both a work permit and social security number. He remains detained at Krome detention center in Miami with an immigration court date scheduled for 2 October.
Galeano fled Nicaragua in December 2018 after police raided the news outlet where he worked, 100% Noticias, and issued an arrest warrant for him. He subsequently arrived in Miami and petitioned for asylum. The Nicaraguan government stripped Galeano of his citizenship as part of a broader measure affecting at least 94 opposition figures, including acclaimed novelist Sergio Ramírez and poet Gioconda Belli. Since arriving in the United States, Galeano has continued reporting critically on the Sandinista government through his online platform, Café con voz.
The detention has drawn scrutiny from multiple quarters. The House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on the Ortega-Murillo regime on Tuesday, with Committee Chairperson María Elvira Salazar denouncing what she characterized as the dismantling of democracy in Nicaragua. Following Galeano’s detention, Salazar stated that “America must always know the difference between a criminal and a political exile.” Republican colleague Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart also issued a statement emphasizing the United States’ tradition as “a beacon of freedom for those persecuted by tyranny.”
Critics and observers have highlighted tensions in the government’s approach. Ana María Méndez Dardón of the Washington Office on Latin America characterized the detention as exemplifying “serious and profound contradictions” in the Trump administration’s Nicaragua policy, noting a disconnect between denouncing the Ortega-Murillo regime while detaining a journalist targeted by that same regime. The Committee to Protect Journalists and the Inter American Press Association have called for Galeano’s release.
Galeano’s targeting by Nicaraguan authorities predates his recent exile. In 2011, Amnesty International issued an urgent action bulletin warning that his life was in danger following threats related to his reporting on government financial misuse. His wife stated the family had prepared mentally for possible detention and expressed confidence in the strength of what she described as “a very well-documented asylum case.”
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