ATLANTA — After more than two years behind bars, Ernesto Antonio Ramirez Garcia thought he was dreaming when he was told he was being released. Except, that release was not what he expected.
Instead, he was being released and flown to the United States, instead of being able to go back home to his wife and 13-year-old son.
"When they told me we were going to be free, I couldn’t believe it," Ramirez Garcia said in an interview that has since been translated from Spanish to English. "I got down on my knees and I cried. Then I found out we were being flown outside of Nicaragua. That was difficult because they’re forcing you out of your country… the one you’ve been trying to save. I didn’t even get a chance to say bye to my family."
He is one of the 222 political prisoners released by the Nicaraguan government earlier this year. With the release, they were also stripped from their citizenship.
Ramirez Garcia showed 11Alive the scabs and burn marks along his ankles from the ankle cuffs that he says squeezed his ankles during his time in prison. He said he was sticking up for human rights violations that he did not agree with, when government officials decided to put him behind bar.
“I weighed 210 pounds when I went to prison. When I left two and a half years later, I weighed 130 pounds," he explained.
He says during that time, he was heavily tortured.
"They would keep me naked, wouldn’t let me sleep. They’d throw water on me, would beat me up, would insult me and pull me by hair I used to have. Many inhumane things," he added.
The U.S. Department of State explains they had been imprisoned for exercising fundamental freedoms, and include journalists, students, and political and business leaders.
Ramirez Garcia worked for a newspaper, but today works at Mi Linda Managua restaurant in Norcross.
He, and four others whom he now calls brothers, were freed together and now work there together as they make Atlanta their new home.
They also go to a psychologist assigned to them once a week, but Francisco Javier Pineda Guatemala explains they’ll never un-see what they went through.
“I thought when they told us we’d go free, I’d get to see my five children grow old," he said. "But I didn’t want to leave Nicaragua because I wanted to fight until I could see my country free. There have been too many human rights violations.”
They were granted humanitarian parole for two years, giving them time to apply for asylum in the U.S.
Pineda Guatemala said Nicaraguan military officials entered his home while he was at his construction job, destroyed his home, found guns, and accused him of manufacturing guns.
When they couldn't find him, he said they put his wife in jail, instead. That's when he decided to turn himself in to let his family be free.
“They accused us of crimes we never committed. I had hot coffee thrown on my back. I was beaten by many of them," he said. "Days before our release, they put us out in the sun so that we’d get some color back and people would assume everything was okay with us."
He explained everything was far from OK with them. While they get time to be at a "forced" home away from home, they are grateful for people who are helping them get adjusted to normalcy.