Martinez-Martinez

MEMORANDUM ****

Ana Maria Martinez-Martinez, a native and citizen of Nicaragua, petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) summarily affirming an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of her application for asylum and withholding of deportation. We have jurisdiction under the transitional rules of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (“IIRIRA”), 8 U.S.C. § 1105a (1996), as amended by IIR-IRA § 309(c)(4), see Kalaw v. INS, 133 F.3d 1147, 1150 (9th Cir.1997), and we deny the petition.

We agree with the government that the IJ’s finding that Martinez-Martinez was “in part credible” and in part lacked credibility was not an adverse credibility finding. See Aguilera-Cota v. INS, 914 F.2d 1375, 1383 (9th Cir.1990) (holding that an adverse credibility finding must be “explicit and direct” and that an IJ’s “mere *846 statement that a petitioner is ‘not entirely credible’ is not enough.”). We therefore must accept Martinez-Martinez’s testimony as true. Kalubi v. Ashcroft, 364 F.3d 1134, 1137 (9th Cir.2004).

Nevertheless, we deny the petition because the IJ’s finding that Martinez-Martinez did not suffer past persecution…