A new study says about half of Nicaragua's population wants to emigrate

In repressive Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega's government has cracked down on dissent, and shuttered numerous institutions and organizations.

Nicaragua’s poisonous mix of economic decline and repression has led to about half of the country’s population of 6.2 million saying they want to leave their homeland, according to a new study, and 23% saying they had contemplated the possibility deeply enough to consider themselves "very prepared" to emigrate.

"A large proportion of them have already taken concrete steps to try to get out," said Elizabeth Zechmeister, the director of the AmericasBarometer study "The Pulse of Democracy in the Americas."