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Two Nicaraguan journalists ask for political asylum in the U.S. after receiving death threats

Two reporters from Nicaragua have asked for asylum to the United States after receiving death threats, according to the daily La Prensa.

María Lidia Bermúdez revealed a wrongful firing at the National Agrarian University (UNA) where she worked as the public relations chief. After bringing court action against the university's dean, Telémaco Talavera, Bermúdez began to receive death threats pressuring her to stop her complaints, according to the Informative Reports Center of Guatemala (Cerigua). Her husband, Ary Neil Pantoja, former editor at newspaper El Nuevo Diario, was also victim to these threats.

Currently, both journalists are in the United States asking for political asylum, according to El Cronista Digital. In case the couple is denied asylum, they must immediately return to Nicaragua.

Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.