Nicaraguan YouTuber Francisco Javier Reyes Rosas, known as “Chico Reyes Rosas”, has been prevented from returning to Nicaragua after a trip to Spain. The ban occurred on August 27, when he was in transit in Houston, United States, on his way to Managua, the capital of the Central American country, but was only revealed by Chico on Saturday (21).
In a video posted on his channel on Saturday, which has more than 130,000 subscribers, Reyes Rosas, who talks about Nicaragua’s tourist attractions in his content, revealed that the airline informed him that the Nicaraguan regime’s immigration authorities had denied him entry into the country.
The reason for this refusal appears to be linked to Reyes Rosas’ collaboration with a Venezuelan YouTuber named Óscar Alejandro Pérez Martínez, who has openly criticized the lack of freedom in Nicaragua and the abuses of the regime of Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo. In February 2024, during his visit to Nicaragua, Pérez Martínez made a series of videos depicting living conditions under the Sandinista dictatorship, which generated discontent among the regime’s leaders. In April, Venezuelan NGOs reported that Pérez Martínez had been arrested by agents of the Maduro regime in Venezuela on charges of “terrorism.” The YouTuber is also a critic of the Caracas regime.
Reyes Rosas expressed in his video published on Saturday the frustration and pain he felt when he was informed about the ban on returning to his home country.
“When I was told this, it hit me hard. You can’t imagine what it’s like to feel denied entry into your own country. […] I was calm about going home, but they left me stuck in a country that wasn’t mine, in a place where they didn’t know if I had money or not to stay, eat, or resolve issues. It was a huge shock and remembering it still hurts me,” he said.
Although no official reason was given for the denial, he tried to contact immigration authorities and the Nicaraguan consulate in the United States, but did not receive satisfactory responses.
“We can’t do anything. When they don’t allow entry [na Nicarágua] of someone, it is for some reason that we do not know and they do not tell us. So, wherever you call, they will not give you the reason”, reported the YouTuber about the call with an employee of the Ministry of the Interior.
Reyes Rosas, who is a geologist by profession, wondered whether recording videos or expressing opinions in Nicaragua would be considered a crime, since his content was dedicated to showing tourist destinations and interesting facts about his native country.
“Is recording in Nicaragua a crime? Is giving an opinion about this or that a crime? No, right?” he asked.
After being denied entry to Nicaragua, Reyes Rosas was granted temporary shelter in the United States, where someone took him in. He said that no matter where he is, he considers himself “100 percent Nicaraguan” and will continue to be proud of his roots.
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