{"id":14710,"date":"2012-09-18T04:36:49","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T02:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/09\/freed-american-says-more-u-s-citizens-remain-in-nicaraguan-jails\/"},"modified":"2012-09-18T04:36:49","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T02:36:49","slug":"freed-american-says-more-u-s-citizens-remain-in-nicaraguan-jails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/freed-american-says-more-u-s-citizens-remain-in-nicaraguan-jails\/","title":{"rendered":"Freed American says more U.S. citizens remain in Nicaraguan jails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* U.S. citizen who received a 22-year sentence is freed<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Remains unclear on why he was prosecuted<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Puracal has not ruled out future visits to Nicaragua<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Emily Flitter and Mary Slosson<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) &#8211; When a guard at a Nicaraguan<br \/>\nprison showed Jason Puracal the newspaper headline saying he<br \/>\nwould be freed, he tried to walk out of jail that instant, only<br \/>\nto be sent back to his cell.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A few days later, however, Puracal, the U.S. citizen who was<br \/>\njailed in Nicaragua two years ago after being wrongfully<br \/>\nconvicted of drug trafficking and money laundering, walked free.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The whole process has been very surreal,&#8221; Puracal, 35, said<br \/>\nin an interview with Reuters on Monday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>He said he had faced hunger, squalid conditions and the<br \/>\nconstant threat of violence while in prison.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a very hot, dirty, crowded, insect-infested place,&#8221; he<br \/>\nsaid. &#8220;I would just think of my son. He was the ray of hope that<br \/>\nkept me going.&#8221;<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* U.S. citizen who received a 22-year sentence is freed * Remains unclear on why he was prosecuted * Puracal has not ruled out future visits to Nicaragua By Emily Flitter and Mary Slosson NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) &#8211; When a guard at a Nicaraguan prison showed Jason Puracal the newspaper headline saying he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-14710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}