After 19 months as a political prisoner in Nicaragua, Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa, the father of Riverdale producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, is back in the United States.
According to Deadline, he arrived at Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. on Thursday morning (February 9) with a group of more than 220 political prisoners who were released at the same time.
“This is a miracle,” Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Deadline. “There’s no other way to describe this crazy story and how it ends other than as the biggest plot twist that none of us saw coming.”
In summer 2021, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa learned his father was missing. He received a phone call from his sister stating that their father “had been arrested or kidnapped.” At the time, Deadline reported that he was believed to be in the custody of the Nicaraguan government.
Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa, who is not a U.S. citizen, was stopped at a Costa Rican airport with his wife. They were scheduled to go to Washington D.C. for a scheduled surgery for him. At the airport, his passport was taken, and he was told he was “under investigation for treason and for being an enemy of the state.” They were then told to return home but were stopped by National Police before they got there. Francisco was then detained.
Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa served as the Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2000. He later became Nicaragua’s foreign minister. His son said that his father has been a vocal critic of President Daniel Ortega. He was being held at El Chipote prison for most of his time in Nicaragua.
“Tonight, my father will sleep in his own bed in D.C., my hometown,” Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said. “It really is a miracle. My mother, who is a very religious person, never doubted that I would see my dad again. She had this belief and she’s never wavered, even when things weren’t going the way we hoped.”
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa planned on traveling to Washington D.C. to reunite with his father Thursday evening.