Nicaragua deports Brazil filmmaker

After spending over 30 hours under custody by Nicaraguan authorities, Brazilian documentary filmmaker Emilia Mello was deported. The information was confirmed Monday (Aug. 27) by Paulo Abrão, executive secretary with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Mello is reported to have boarded the plane yesterday (26), on an Avianca flight with a connection in El Salvador and Mexico City. She is expected to fly on to New York, as she also holds US citizenship.

The filmmaker was arrested on Saturday (25) while on her way to a rally against President Daniel Ortega, in Granada. She was taken into custody along with 20 other people—most of whom university students who had been demonstrating for four months. All were released, except for Mello, who was deported. “The government claimed she had a tourist visa, and that she wasn’t allowed to work,” Abrão said.