Nicaragua newspaper says it gets supplies held for 18 months

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — The Nicaraguan government turned over a stock of supplies to independent newspaper La Prensa on Thursday after they were delayed in customs for 18 months, and authorities promised to deliver in the coming hours tons of newsprint and ink also held up, the paper said.

The board of directors of La Prensa, Nicaragua’s oldest paper and a critic of President Daniel Ortega’s government, said in a statement that a number of parts and equipment for its printing press had already arrived at its facilities.

It added that it anticipated receiving the paper and the rest of the supplies Friday.

La Prensa had announced Wednesday that the government had agreed to unblock the materials held up since August 2018. It said the Vatican’s top diplomat in Managua, Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, had intervened on its behalf.

The government never explained why the materials were retained in customs.

Another newspaper, El Nuevo Diario, was similarly affected and shut down in September after 40 years in business.

Leadership of both papers had complained of being subjected to de facto censorship and “economic asphyxiation,” allegedly in reprisal for editorial stances critical of Ortega and in favor of anti-government protests that broke out in 2018.