For privacy and safety reasons I'll be telling a simplified and shorter version of the story and will be leaving out the real names. This incident started years ago but is unfortunately still ongoing.
The post turned out longer than I expected, so I'll post a TLDR version below the quote, if you're interested and would like a better understanding of the story, please read the full version.
TLDR: A person that has ties with the corrupt Nicaraguan government used his connections to steal my family's land. He had people follow my family, threatened to kill and tried to imprison them using false accusations. Under the US Embassy's recommendation, we had to flee the country from one moment to the next.
The post turned out longer than I expected, so I'll post a TLDR version below the quote, if you're interested and would like a better understanding of the story, please read the full version.
My family owned and operated a real estate development project worth millions, in the country of Nicaragua. This is land my parents had bought and developed themselves, over the course of 12 years. At the beginning, everything was going extremely well for us, until the Sandinistas came into power once again.
The Sandinista government started to cause many problems for us. Repeatedly, they would claim we were doing something we actually weren't and force us to stop developing for months at a time. As the years went on it started to get worse, and they had already caused us great damage.
Then a man approached my parents and said he could help them to sell our development (lets just call him the Agent). He was someone who we knew had high up connections in the government. He claimed he could get them to stop bothering us. At first he did and the previous problems went away, but at that point, the damage had already been done. We were forced into a position where we had to sell our entire project.
Then another and the worst attack yet from the government hit us. Without notifying us or hearing of any kind, the deeds to a part of our land had been illegally cancelled in the registry. When we confronted the judge who did it, she told us she knew it was a mistake but that she couldn't fix it unless she got orders from higher up. We informed the US Embassy, and they pretty much just said, "keep us posted".
The Agent said he could fix it easily, and both my family and the Agent continued looking for a buyer. We both found one and got offers from both buyers at the same time. The Agent begged that we go with his buyer instead of the one we found, and at the time we thought he did deserve to get the commission, so we went with his buyer. The buyer was kept a mystery to us through most of the process, until eventually we were made aware of who he was (lets call him Bob). The Agent kept all contact through him and we couldn't really talk to Bob directly.
We wanted the issue with our deeds fixed before the sale, but the Agent insisted he would fix it and it wasn't a problem and we were running out of time. We made a "promise to sell" contract to the Agents company and we made sure to be upfront and clear in the contract about the illegal cancellation of the deeds and their status.
The closing date was soon and the Agent told my parents that he needed a 30 day extension. The other buyer still wanted to purchase the project so we decided we were going to sell to him after the closing date passed. Right before this date came, the Agent demanded the extension on the contract, where before he asked nicely and begged to use his buyer, his tone had changed and now was threatening that if we didn't grant him the extension the government "wouldn't be happy" and it would be "really bad for you".
We found his comments troubling, the government put us into this position in the first place and we knew how damaging they could be. We figured we should try and play it safe, and as long as we got the sale we would play along. One day before the extension date ended, the Agent informed us that Bob had backed out of the sale, supposedly because he didn't like the situation with the deeds. We would soon learn that was a lie.
At this point, we had lost the other buyer. The Agent told us: "why don't you sign over the project and we'll find an investor to pay you later". We said that was absurd and said no. The Agent contacted my father the next week and told him that he couldn't try to sell the project to anyone because of the cancelled deeds in the registry and we should just give him the project now. My father was shocked and again said no. The agent knew about this and was supposed to fix it. The Agent then threatened my father, saying that he was going to "regret this" and that if he didn't give him what he wanted, he is going to be "found dead in a ditch". That wasn't the last death threat either.
A few weeks later, out of the blue, Bob called us. He told us that he backed out of buying the project 2 weeks before the extension closing date, not one day before like the Agent told us and not because of the deeds. The reason was because he found out the Agent was jacking up the price tremendously behind our backs, and had added in fake costs to the project that would go directly to the Agent. Bob found this out because he met with the buyer my family had found before and compared the sales contracts. Bob asked us if we would sell to him directly for the real price. We said yes, and signed a sales contract with Bob. We hoped this would finally be the end of it, but things were just getting started.
The next day, the man in charge of the supreme court, one of the highest positions possible in the government, contacted my father and asked to meet over the "issue" supposedly on orders of the president. He repeated the request to give the Agent the entire project. My father informed him he didn't have the right to ask for the entire project, and besides, we had just sold it. The Judge ended the conversation saying "Well, that's going to be a big problem".
Then started the most bizarre and scary week of my life. Strange people started following my family around. A suspicious car followed my sister and mother when they went out. The same car pulled up next to me and the rest of my family outside a movie theater and the guys inside made some comments about how they knew where we lived and drove off.
Not long after, my parents receive a notice that they were being charged with a criminal case based on bogus claims and were given 48 hours to answer the charges. Our lawyer told us not to worry as he could easily prove they were false and the case would not go anywhere. We were all shocked that the case continued and my parents were ordered to appear for a hearing.
My father then heard from a trusted contact that there was already an order of arrest for him and my mother and that they were going to be arrested even before the hearing date. We went to the US embassy to hand over copies of all the case files and informed them what was happening and asked for help. They told us we would be surprised to find out just how many Americans were rotting away in jail in Nicaragua who had their property stolen and did nothing wrong. They advised us to get out of the country immediately and gave us our emergency passports.
There was already an order of arrest, and we were told we'd be stopped if we tried to fly out. Things weren't looking good and we didn't have much time to escape. Thanks to a special contact, we were able to secure a way out, our only way out, through the Honduras border. Needless to say, I was worried. We had a very specific window of time we'd be allowed to pass through, and Honduras isn't exactly known as being safe, and to make matters worse, we weren't even sure if we'd be allowed to take our car across the border.
I packed a small bag, said goodbye to my dogs and prepared for the escape. I wondered how long it would be before I could return home, hoping it wouldn't be too long. Everything they were doing to us was so clearly illegal and a violation of our rights. I thought it shouldn't take that long - right!? It turned out that I'd never be able to return to my home again.
As we got to the border, we had to leave our car behind and walk through thick mud under rain to the next checkpoint. Then the moment of truth came: time to see if we'd be allowed to pass or not. Thankfully we got through. Onto the next problem: we had no car and we were surrounded by some, lets say, suspicious people. A man who was high as a kite on who knows what was harassing us, trying to grab us and our things. This group of 6 guys kept trying to give us a ride in their van, and that sure as hell didn't sound too safe.
Luckily a family member in Honduras managed to send someone over to give us a ride to a hotel. As we drove at night on a dirt road, a group of police officers with AK-47s pulled us over. I found their presence unsettling. They kept flashing their flashlights on our faces and readied their guns to fire. They definitely had bad intentions. An officer opened the car door and kind of just stared at us for a while before asking for our IDs and we handed him our passports. He made a comment that it was up to him whether those passports were good or not and wasn't planning on letting us go. Then my dad showed him his ID as a commander in the fire department and told him he was on his way to the American Military Base and they were expecting him and he let us go.
Two days later, we got on a plane and headed to stay with some family in the states. For a year we were in limbo. The first year was the hardest. It was strange how the life I knew disappeared so quickly. Every day we were just fighting so we could go back home - wondering how much longer it would be. After a while we came to accept we probably weren't going to be able to go back.
As time went by, things just seemed to keep getting worse. Bob breached the sales contract. We weren't in a position to start a legal battle with him though. The Agent had illegally taken possession of the project. He and the government continued to harass us, as he wanted to own it outright. More threats were made, like taking our home for example. Because of the situation we were in, we started trying to sell our home but the real estate company said they couldn't sell the house because they were told by several people that it was about to be seized. We were worried to say the least. They had no legal right to take our home. It shouldn't be possible but nothing they had done to us was legal. These people just continued to do whatever they want. Someone who knew of the situation took advantage and made an incredibly low offer we felt forced to accept. Something was better than nothing.
It's now been around 2 years since I had to leave my home. There are a lot more details to the story and it is still ongoing. I actually tried to keep this short and this post is already too long. I wasn't sure about posting this or if anyone would even care. If you've read the entire thing, thank you for sticking with it.
TLDR: A person that has ties with the corrupt Nicaraguan government used his connections to steal my family's land. He had people follow my family, threatened to kill and tried to imprison them using false accusations. Under the US Embassy's recommendation, we had to flee the country from one moment to the next.
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