The crisis that Nicaraguans are living since April 18 and that has claimed over 165 lives since has resulted in an increase in the number of applications for refuge in Costa Rica by Nicaraguans fleeing the atrocities by the government of Daniel Ortega.
On Thursday, Costa Rica’s immigration service (Dirección de Migración y Extranjería) reported from than 500 applicants at its main offices in La Uruca, in San Jose. By Friday afternoon the number had grown to 936.
Many told the television cameras and reporters, they fled their country.
The number on Thursday was more than the 488 applications made during the first days of June. In May there were 88 applications, 24 in April.
The violence that broke out in Nicaragua – and to which President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo are accused of – led to the ‘pinoleros’ requests for refuge in Costa Rica to surpass those of Venezuelans, who led the list until May.
Reports from the Peñas Blancas border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua say there is an increase in flow south (into Costa Rica), while very few are heading north (into Nicaragua.
* Pinolero(s) is a colloquial term for a Nicaraguan. Other colloquial references include Nica(s), Nicoya(s). Each of these terms are gender-neutral.
