Fully Authoritarian
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HRF classifies Nicaragua as ruled by a fully authoritarian regime.
Nicaragua’s modern political history has been shaped by long periods of authoritarian rule. In 1937, the Somoza family established a hereditary dictatorship that lasted until 1979, when the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew Anastasio Somoza after years of armed insurgency. Following the Sandinista takeover, Nicaragua descended into a prolonged civil war t between the left-wing FSLN led by Daniel Ortega and the right-wing US-backed Contras, turning the country into a major Cold War proxy conflict. In 1990, Nicaragua initiated a transition to democracy after a series of regional peace talks and treaties, most notably the Treaty of Esquipulas. This brief period of democratic experimentation came to an end in 2006 when Daniel Ortega was elected to the presidency. Throughout their rule, Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, along with the FSLN party, have progressively undermined democratic institutions and consolidated power, effectively setting up their own family-led authoritarian system. Furthermore, the regime has also armed paramilitary forces to repress dissent in coordination with police forces. During the nationwide anti-regime protests of 2018, paramilitary groups were implicated in the widespread assault and murder of protestors—a repressive campaign that initiated a period of rapid authoritarian consolidation. Between November 2024 and January 2025, the FSLN-controlled National Assembly adopted and promulgated constitutional reform that significantly restructured the Nicaraguan government. Under the reformed Constitution, the regime has institutionalized informal paramilitary groups with the creation of a volunteer police force. Moreover, Ortega and Murillo have been designated as co-presidents who wield control over all three branches of government, thereby eliminating constitutional guarantees of separation of powers and institutionalizing authoritarian rule in Nicaragua.
In Nicaragua, national elections are a sham, to the point where the real, mainstream political opposition does not have a realistic chance to meaningfully compete and possibly win. Co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, as well as the FSLN, have engaged in widespread electoral fraud so as to unfairly remain in power. Non-state actors with ties to the regime have regularly intimidated and coerced individuals into voting for the regime. Regime officials have also unfairly barred prominent opposition candidates and political parties from competing in elections. Prominent opposition leaders have been unfairly imprisoned, forcibly expelled from the country, and stripped of their citizenship.
Independent media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, and members of the general public face overt and systematic retaliation if they openly criticize or challenge the Ortega-Murillo regime and the FSLN. The regime has systematically persecuted independent dissenting civil society organizations (CSOs), forcing the closure of thousands of organizations. Dissidents regularly face arbitrary detentions, imprisonment, physical aggression, and judicial and administrative harassment from regime officials. Protests have also been violently repressed by state security forces and regime-allied paramilitary groups. Furthermore, the regime has forcibly expatriated hundreds of dissidents and stripped them of their citizenship. Exiled dissidents continue to face significant risks abroad due to the regime’s transnational repression.
Institutions largely fail to serve as independent checks on the regime. The judiciary, as well as regulatory bodies and oversight institutions, are subservient to Ortega and Murillo and the ruling FSLN party. Nicaragua’s institutions largely fail to uphold electoral integrity and do not protect the rights of dissidents. In effect, the courts regularly facilitate regime action that undermines the political opposition and silences critical voices. At the same time that critics and political leaders are unfairly criminalized, regime officials are able to commit serious crimes with impunity; they are not held accountable by the country’s institutions.
In Nicaragua, national elections are a sham, to the point where the real, mainstream political opposition does not have a realistic chance to meaningfully compete and possibly win. The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has overtly falsified electoral results to unfairly remain in power, in addition to engaging in widespread voter intimidation and coercion. Regime-allied non-state actors have also been employed to unfairly boost the FSLN in the polls. To further skew the electoral playing field in its favor, the regime has criminalized and barred prominent opposition candidates and political parties from competing in elections.
Throughout the rule of Ortega and Murillo, the FSLN regime has engaged in systematic, significant voting irregularities and electoral fraud. These fraudulent practices include the overt falsification of results, as well as widespread voter intimidation and coercion. During the 2021 general elections, Ortega and Murillo claimed a landslide victory with 75% of the vote. However, civil actors uncovered evidence of significant electoral fraud, electoral violence, and voter intimidation and coercion. Urnas Abiertas, a covert network of citizen electoral observers based in Nicaragua, published a report describing the tactics used by the regime to unfairly remain in power. For instance, known dissidents were barred from entering poll stations, state employees were required to show proof they voted for the regime, and votes for the FSLN were duplicated by regime-allied poll workers. Moreover, the regime mobilized party members to bring vulnerable individuals—such as hospital patients—to polling stations with the aim of abusing assisted vote mechanisms to unfairly obtain votes. FSLN party workers also set up surveillance points near polling stations from which they photographed and intimidated voters; at times, state security forces were also present near the polls. In addition to unfairly claiming the presidency, the FSLN also increased its majority in the National Assembly during the 2021 elections, winning 75 of 90 attainable seats. The remaining 15 seats were distributed among parties that have no real ability to challenge the ruling party. According to international bodies that regularly engage in independent electoral observation, like the European Council and the Organization of American States (OAS), Nicaragua’s 2021 general elections lacked democratic legitimacy due to the unfair electoral conditions and widespread irregularities.
Non-state actors, with ties to the regime, have systematically contributed to orchestrating electoral irregularities or fraud. Paramilitary groups armed and maintained by the regime have been deployed to intimidate and block voters during elections. According to CSOs Human Rights Watch and Urnas Abiertas, armed loyalists were present at some polling stations, along with state security forces, to intimidate voters during the 2021 elections. Furthermore, some dissidents were arbitrarily detained and surveilled at their homes by armed non-state actors as well as state security forces. These dissidents were effectively barred from going to vote and their neighbors and family members were harassed and intimidated. Ultimately, the informal but close collaboration between paramilitary forces and regime officials to unfairly maintain Ortega and Murillo in power was institutionalized in January 2025 with the creation of the regime’s volunteer police force.
The Ortega-Murillo regime has also systematically and unfairly barred real, mainstream opposition parties or candidates from competing in elections. Members of the opposition, including prominent political leaders, have been subjected to politically-motivated charges of corruption and treason. The regime has systematically leveraged its control over the judiciary and the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) to unfairly jail and bar opposition candidates from participating in elections. In 2021, seven presidential candidates were arrested under trumped-up charges—including treason, money laundering, and conspiring against national security—and imprisoned without a fair chance to challenge these accusations. For example, opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro was sentenced to eight years in prison for money laundering. Furthermore, the regime has leveraged its control over the CSE to arbitrarily strip arrested opposition leaders of their candidacy and opposition parties of their legal status—for instance, presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga’s party Citizens for Liberty (CxL) was stripped of its party status by the CSE in August 2021. At times, the regime has co-opted major opposition parties instead of eliminating them. For instance, the CSE and the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) have arbitrarily replaced real opposition party leaders with regime loyalists, converting well-known opposition parties, like the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), into a sham opposition.
Since 2023, hundreds of imprisoned political opponents and dissidents have been released; however, many of them have been stripped of their citizenship and forcibly expelled from the country. As a result, the majority of the real mainstream opposition in Nicaragua is currently either exiled or imprisoned. All real opposition parties have either been barred from participating in elections or taken over by regime loyalists. Moreover, a constitutional reform enacted in early 2025, along with long-standing practices of nepotism, has created both legal and de facto pathways for the Ortega-Murillo family to perpetuate itself in power by setting up a dynastic regime.
Independent media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, and members of the general public face overt and systematic retaliation if they openly criticize or challenge the regime of Daniel Ortega, Rosario Murillo, and the FSLN. Independent dissenting organizations have been systematically shut down, while dissidents regularly face arbitrary detention, physical abuse, forced expulsion from the country, and administrative and judicial harassment. Furthermore, protesters have been subject to excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and torture. In particular, armed non-state actors allied with the regime have been implicated in the killings of protestors. Non-state actors have also been known to engage in the transnational repression of exiled critics on behalf of the regime.
The regime in Nicaragua has systematically and unfairly shut down independent, dissenting organizations. Regime officials regularly leverage unfounded charges and unfair laws to strip CSOs and other independent entities of their legal status and seize their assets. Between 2018 and 2025, more than 5600 independent organizations were stripped of their legal status and shut down. This figure includes at least 54 media companies, such as the popular independent outlets La Prensa, 100% Noticias, and Confidencial, which also saw their assets seized by the Ortega-Murillo regime. In addition to shutting down the independent media, the regime has also systematically shut down private universities and confiscated their assets. Most notably, in 2023, the regime confiscated the campus and assets of the Jesuit-run University of Central America (UCA), alleging it was a “center of terrorism.” Other institutions, like the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua, were shut down due to alleged failures to comply with financial reporting requirements. Officials have systematically abused unfair laws, such as the Law of General Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations (Law no. 1115), which expands the regime officials’ ability to arbitrarily shut down dissenting organizations. The regime has also imposed unreasonable financial reporting requirements and other administrative obstructions, with the goal of leveraging supposed non-compliance to justify shutdowns. As a result of the widespread persecution against CSOs, media organizations, universities, and other independent entities, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) declared in 2023 that “organised civic activism and the defence of human rights have become almost impossible” in Nicaragua.
The Ortega-Murillo regime has also systematically and seriously intimidated and obstructed the work of independent, dissenting media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, and members of the general public. Dissidents regularly face physical aggression from regime officials, as well as the risk of arbitrary detentions and unfair imprisonment. The FSLN regime has gone as far as to forcibly expel hundreds of dissidents from the country in order to silence dissent in Nicaragua. Between 2023 and 2024, the Nicaraguan government expelled more than 300 political prisoners from the country and stripped more than 400 dissidents of their citizenship. Among those affected by the FSLN’s crackdown are politicians, journalists, priests, diplomats, leaders of indigenous communities, and activists. For instance, the prominent civil society leader Vilma Núñez de Escorcia, co-founder of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), was one of 94 dissidents stripped of their citizenship and declared “traitors to the nation” in February 2023. The regime also stripped the CENIDH of its legal status. In November 2025, the regime released approximately 40 political prisoners, but they were subsequently placed under house arrest. Moreover, the release of political prisoners during the last weeks of 2025 revealed that the total number of political prisoners in Nicaragua has been underreported. As of December 2025, at least 62 dissidents remained unfairly imprisoned in Nicaragua, some of whom have also been victims of enforced disappearances, according to the Nicaraguan CSO coalition, Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
After the regime’s authoritarian drift became more pronounced in 2018, Catholic religious leaders were targeted by the regime as they became outspoken critics of the FSLN. In 2022, the former Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, was arrested for his advocacy on behalf of political prisoners and dissidents. He was sentenced to 25 years of prison and stripped of his citizenship after an express trial. In January 2024, he was expelled to the Vatican. Journalists have also been systematically targeted by the regime. According to the exiled Nicaraguan CSO, the Foundation for Free Speech and Democracy, at least 300 journalists have been forced into exile since 2018. For instance, in 2021, La Prensa’s entire staff had to flee the country after regime officials raided the media company’s offices and shut down their operations; the newspaper now operates online and in exile.
The regime in Nicaragua has systematically, seriously, and unfairly repressed protests and gatherings. State security forces and pro-government paramilitary groups have used disproportionate and lethal force against protestors. Moreover, the regime has also unfairly imprisoned and forcibly disappeared protestors in order to squash dissent in Nicaragua. The last major protest movement to take place in Nicaragua began in April 2018. While protests were initially sparked by an unpopular social security law, they grew into nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations spearheaded by university students. In response, state security forces and pro-FSLN paramilitary groups led a violent crackdown on protesters and journalists: at least 355 people were killed, and thousands were injured and arbitrarily detained. The Ortega-Murillo regime attempted to bar media coverage of the protests and accused protestors of attempting to stage a coup d’état. After violently crushing the 2018 protest movement, the regime retaliated against student leaders and their allies. Students who participated in the protests were expelled from universities, professors who participated in the protests were fired, educational and religious institutions, like the UCA and the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua, that supported protesters were stripped of their legal status and shut down, and the arbitrary detention and prosecution of protesters persisted and intensified. According to Human Rights Watch, imprisoned dissidents faced unfair trials and trumped-up charges; they were sometimes tortured and coerced into recording false confessions. Since 2018, the regime has effectively eliminated the right to assembly and protest—for instance, individuals can be jailed for raising the Nicaraguan flag in public. In 2020, over a dozen opposition leaders were barred from leaving their homes by police forces to prevent them from leading anti-regime marches.
In response to dissidence abroad, the regime has also systematically engaged in, or enabled, transnational repression against critics in exile. Exiled dissidents have denounced direct harassment and threats by the Ortega-Murillo regime—including being subject to surveillance, verbal intimidation, judicial harassment, and coercion by proxy. Moreover, the regime has engaged in widespread administrative harassment, including the arbitrary deprivation of citizenship, which directly hinders dissidents’ ability to subsist abroad. According to the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, regime intelligence and military forces engage in the systematic digital surveillance of exiled dissidents. The regime intercepts private conversations, installs spyware onto dissidents’ devices, and occasionally issues direct verbal threats. Family members or close allies who remain in Nicaragua may also be subject to harassment in order to silence exiled dissidents, which can take the form of arbitrary denial of medical and educational services or dismissal from employment.
Between 2023 and 2024, the Ortega-Murillo regime stripped more than 400 dissidents of their citizenship, leaving many stateless. As a result, exiled dissidents can face additional challenges in finding jobs, accessing healthcare, and applying for residency permits. While not all exiled dissidents have been arbitrarily stripped of their citizenship, the regime also engages in other forms of administrative and legal harassment that hinder dissidents’ subsistence in exile. For instance, the Ortega-Murillo regime has been known to arbitrarily destroy the academic, professional, and identity records of dissidents as well as arbitrarily deny the issuing of passports—hindering exiled dissidents’ ability to qualify for employment, educational degrees, and residence permits. Moreover, the regime may seize the assets of exiled individuals, leaving them without resources. In all these ways, the regime in Nicaragua hampers the autonomy and subsistence of dissidents abroad.
Non-state actors tied to the regime have systematically contributed to the governing authority’s transnational repression, with paramilitary groups implicated in the kidnapping and assassination of dissidents abroad. In particular, dissidents in Costa Rica have been targeted by armed non-state actors, many of whom have been able to evade capture and remain anonymous. For instance, in January 2025, prominent FSLN critic Roberto Samcam was assassinated at his home in San José. The nature of these transnational crimes complicates identifying and holding perpetrators accountable. Nonetheless, evidence collected by dissidents, experts from the United Nations (UN), and the Costa Rican authorities credibly links the Ortega-Murillo regime to the attacks on exiled Nicaraguan dissidents. In September 2025, Costa Rican officials captured four individuals who are suspected of carrying out the assassination of Roberto Samcam. Media outlets also reported that a leaked report identified Nicaraguan intelligence officials as responsible for planning the murder; however, this information has not been confirmed by the Costa Rican authorities. In 2022, another outspoken protest leader, Rodolfo Rojas Cordero, was forcibly disappeared and assassinated. According to the CSO Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy, it is very likely that non-state actors kidnapped Rojas Cordero in Costa Rica and handed him over to FSLN-allied paramilitary groups in Nicaragua that tortured and killed him. Meanwhile, the exiled activist Joao Maldonado has been attacked twice in 2021 and 2024 by unknown actors with very probable ties to the regime and left seriously injured.
Institutions largely fail to serve as independent checks on the regime. In Nicaragua, the regime-controlled judiciary has been instrumental in the criminalization of the political opposition. Furthermore, oversight institutions, such as the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), have been undermined to the point that they are no longer independent. The regime has therefore been able to leverage its influence over the courts and oversight institutions to unfairly remain in power. The courts in Nicaragua also regularly facilitate unfair imprisonments and expatriations that silence critical voices. At the same time that critics are unfairly criminalized, regime officials are able to commit serious crimes with impunity. The FSLN has also undermined all of Nicaragua’s institutions to the point that the separation of powers has been effectively eliminated.
Courts have systematically and unfairly failed to check, and enabled, the regime’s attempts to significantly undermine electoral competition and make the electoral process significantly skewed in its favor. The regime-controlled judiciary has been instrumental in criminalizing the political opposition so as to perpetuate the co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s hold on power. Higher-level courts have been implicated in regime take-overs of prominent opposition parties as well as in unfairly depriving opposition leaders of their nationality. Meanwhile, lower-level criminal courts operate in highly irregular and opaque ways to unfairly sentence opposition leaders to prison on politically-motivated charges of treason, money laundering, among others.
In order to eliminate electoral competition in Nicaragua, the Ortega-Murillo regime has engaged in the judicial takeovers of prominent opposition parties and created a sham opposition. The Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) has played a central role in this strategy. In 2020 and 2016, the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) and the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) had their party presidents removed after regime-allied politicians leveled lawsuits against the party leadership. The CSJ resolved these lawsuits in favor of the regime loyalists, María Haydée Osuna and Pedro Reyes, and handed them the legal representation of the PLC and PLI, respectively. Shortly after being named party leaders, Osuna and Reyes initiated purges within the parties, eliminating members who were known opponents of the regime—such as the former PLI president Eduardo Montealegre. In particular, the CSJ-fasciliated takeover of the PLI party severely weakened the opposition coalition in the months leading up to the 2017 general elections.
Moreover, the judiciary has systematically enabled the persecution of opposition leaders by unfairly sentencing them to prison on politically-motivated charges, stripping them of their nationality, and issuing orders to forcibly expel opposition leaders from the country. In the months before the 2021 general elections, the Ortega-Murillo regime arrested seven presidential candidates on politically motivated charges. All seven opposition leaders were sentenced to prison by criminal courts in highly irregular proceedings held behind closed doors at the El Chipote prison. Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Miguel Mora, and Medardo Mairena were sentenced to 13 years in prison, while Arturo Cruz and Noel Vidaurre were sentenced to nine years in prison—all on charges of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.” Meanwhile, Cristiana Chamorro, the FSLN’s biggest electoral threat, was sentenced to eight years in prison on money laundering charges, among other corruption charges. All seven opposition leaders were also barred from holding office by the courts. As Ortega and Murillo consolidated authoritarian rule after the 2021 elections, the regime leveraged the judiciary once more to expel prominent opposition leaders from the country and strip them of their nationality. In February 2023, the judge Octavio Ernesto Rothschuh Andino of the Managua Appeals Court issued a resolution declaring 222 political prisoners traitors and ordered their immediate deportation. All seven former presidential candidates were among those forcibly expelled and deprived of their nationality by the Managua Appeals Court.
The FSLN regime has also systematically subjected independent oversight institutions to reforms that abolish or seriously weaken their independence or operational effectiveness. Most notably, the regime’s interference in the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) has permitted it to unfairly remain in power. The regime consolidated its control over Nicaragua’s electoral institutions with the electoral reform of 2021. The reform modified appointment processes so that CSE members are directly nominated by the president and then approved by the National Assembly. Given that the Ortega-Murillo regime already wielded control over the executive and legislative branches, the FSLN effectively granted itself full control over appointments to the CSE. The Ortega-Murillo regime also expanded the CSE’s powers, granting it the ability to unilaterally and arbitrarily dissolve political parties. The accountability mechanisms that kept the CSE’s work somewhat transparent were also greatly diminished. Before the reform of 2021, the Ortega-Murillo regime had already interfered with the CSE through its undue influence over former CSE president Roberto Rivas Reyes, who led the institution from 2000 to 2018. Rivas Reyes played a key role in allowing Ortega to run for reelection early on in his rule, despite constitutional mandate limits, and is credited with facilitating the FSLN’s consolidation of power. In return, the regime protected Rivas Reyes from credible accusations of corruption and embezzlement of public funds. After the 2021 electoral reform, the FSLN filled the CSE with loyalists who proceeded to arbitrarily strip opposition parties of their legal status. One of the opposition parties, Citizens for Liberty (CxL), attempted to appeal the loss of its legal party status before the 2021 general elections, but the legal challenge was ultimately dismissed by the Managua Appeals Court.
The courts in Nicaragua have also systematically, frequently, and unfairly failed to check and have enabled the regime’s attempts to repress criticism and retaliate against those who express open opposition to its most prominent, widely publicized policies. The judiciary enables the jailing of dissidents on politically motivated charges, as well as the expatriation of dissidents. Dissidents are regularly sentenced to prison under trumped-up charges and subjected to unfair and violent conditions during trials. Regime officials have been known to deny dissidents their right to legal representation and subject political prisoners to torture during pre-trial detention. Since 2022, sham trials have taken place directly at the El Chipote prison, where hundreds of political prisoners have been held. Regime critic Dora María Téllez and student protest leader Lesther Alemán were convicted behind closed doors at El Chipote in February 2022 for “undermining national integrity.” Both Téllez and Alemán were later among the 222 political prisoners expelled from Nicaragua and deprived of their nationality in 2023 by Judge Octavio Ernesto Rothschuh Andino of the Managua Appeals Court. Another judge from the same court, Ernesto Leonel Rodríguez Mejía, stripped an additional 94 dissidents of their nationality that same year.
Judicial, legislative, and executive institutions have systematically, frequently, and unfairly failed to hold regime officials accountable. In Nicaragua, regime officials are able to commit serious crimes with impunity. Regime security forces employed excessive use of force to violently repress anti-regime protests in 2018, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of serious injuries. Security forces were not investigated or charged for these human rights violations, even when credible evidence exists of their involvement. In effect, the regime has taken measures across all three branches of government to ensure that regime officials and their armed non-state allies are not investigated or charged. In June 2019, the regime fast-tracked an Amnesty Law through the FSLN-controlled legislature, which granted “broad amnesty to all people who took part in the events that have taken place throughout Nicaragua from April 18, 2018, until this law enters into force.” Both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the OHCHR have condemned the vague and broad language of Nicaragua’s amnesty law, which is designed to foster impunity for serious human rights violations committed by the regime. Since January 2025, Ortega and Murillo officially oversee the National Police and the Ministry of Interior, eliminating the possibility of independent and fair investigations and prosecutions in Nicaragua.
The regime has systematically subjected judicial, legislative, and executive institutions to reforms that abolish or seriously weaken their independence and operational effectiveness. Ortega, Murillo, and the FSLN have systematically undermined the separation of powers to the point that institutional independence has been completely abolished in Nicaragua. Between December 2024 and January 2025, the National Assembly approved and promulgated profound reform of the Nicaragua Constitution—148 out of 198 articles were modified. What is notable about the 2025 reform is the way it institutionalizes the autocratic practices that the regime has been progressively adopting and effectively abolishes any formal separation of powers. For instance, the amendment to Article 132 makes the heads of state “coordinadors” of the judiciary, legislature, and executive branches. Moreover, the amendment to Article 136 also grants the co-presidents the sole capacity to propose candidates for the CSJ, veto legislative proposals, and directly appoint vice-presidents. With the new Article 137, the co-presidents also wield sole power over the appointments of the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, ministers, deputy ministers, and the directors of any government agencies. While the Ortega-Murillo regime had effectively undermined much of the independence of the judiciary, legislature, and executive branch prior to the constitutional reform of January 2025, the new amendments to the Constitution further entrench the concentration of power in the hands of the co-presidents and formally strip all the country’s institutions of any form of independence.
HRF classifies Nicaragua as ruled by a fully authoritarian regime.
Nicaragua’s modern political history has been shaped by long periods of authoritarian rule. In 1937, the Somoza family established a hereditary dictatorship that lasted until 1979, when the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew Anastasio Somoza after years of armed insurgency. Following the Sandinista takeover, Nicaragua descended into a prolonged civil war t between the left-wing FSLN led by Daniel Ortega and the right-wing US-backed Contras, turning the country into a major Cold War proxy conflict. In 1990, Nicaragua initiated a transition to democracy after a series of regional peace talks and treaties, most notably the Treaty of Esquipulas. This brief period of democratic experimentation came to an end in 2006 when Daniel Ortega was elected to the presidency. Throughout their rule, Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, along with the FSLN party, have progressively undermined democratic institutions and consolidated power, effectively setting up their own family-led authoritarian system. Furthermore, the regime has also armed paramilitary forces to repress dissent in coordination with police forces. During the nationwide anti-regime protests of 2018, paramilitary groups were implicated in the widespread assault and murder of protestors—a repressive campaign that initiated a period of rapid authoritarian consolidation. Between November 2024 and January 2025, the FSLN-controlled National Assembly adopted and promulgated constitutional reform that significantly restructured the Nicaraguan government. Under the reformed Constitution, the regime has institutionalized informal paramilitary groups with the creation of a volunteer police force. Moreover, Ortega and Murillo have been designated as co-presidents who wield control over all three branches of government, thereby eliminating constitutional guarantees of separation of powers and institutionalizing authoritarian rule in Nicaragua.
In Nicaragua, national elections are a sham, to the point where the real, mainstream political opposition does not have a realistic chance to meaningfully compete and possibly win. Co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, as well as the FSLN, have engaged in widespread electoral fraud so as to unfairly remain in power. Non-state actors with ties to the regime have regularly intimidated and coerced individuals into voting for the regime. Regime officials have also unfairly barred prominent opposition candidates and political parties from competing in elections. Prominent opposition leaders have been unfairly imprisoned, forcibly expelled from the country, and stripped of their citizenship.
Independent media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, and members of the general public face overt and systematic retaliation if they openly criticize or challenge the Ortega-Murillo regime and the FSLN. The regime has systematically persecuted independent dissenting civil society organizations (CSOs), forcing the closure of thousands of organizations. Dissidents regularly face arbitrary detentions, imprisonment, physical aggression, and judicial and administrative harassment from regime officials. Protests have also been violently repressed by state security forces and regime-allied paramilitary groups. Furthermore, the regime has forcibly expatriated hundreds of dissidents and stripped them of their citizenship. Exiled dissidents continue to face significant risks abroad due to the regime’s transnational repression.
Institutions largely fail to serve as independent checks on the regime. The judiciary, as well as regulatory bodies and oversight institutions, are subservient to Ortega and Murillo and the ruling FSLN party. Nicaragua’s institutions largely fail to uphold electoral integrity and do not protect the rights of dissidents. In effect, the courts regularly facilitate regime action that undermines the political opposition and silences critical voices. At the same time that critics and political leaders are unfairly criminalized, regime officials are able to commit serious crimes with impunity; they are not held accountable by the country’s institutions.
In Nicaragua, national elections are a sham, to the point where the real, mainstream political opposition does not have a realistic chance to meaningfully compete and possibly win. The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has overtly falsified electoral results to unfairly remain in power, in addition to engaging in widespread voter intimidation and coercion. Regime-allied non-state actors have also been employed to unfairly boost the FSLN in the polls. To further skew the electoral playing field in its favor, the regime has criminalized and barred prominent opposition candidates and political parties from competing in elections.
Throughout the rule of Ortega and Murillo, the FSLN regime has engaged in systematic, significant voting irregularities and electoral fraud. These fraudulent practices include the overt falsification of results, as well as widespread voter intimidation and coercion. During the 2021 general elections, Ortega and Murillo claimed a landslide victory with 75% of the vote. However, civil actors uncovered evidence of significant electoral fraud, electoral violence, and voter intimidation and coercion. Urnas Abiertas, a covert network of citizen electoral observers based in Nicaragua, published a report describing the tactics used by the regime to unfairly remain in power. For instance, known dissidents were barred from entering poll stations, state employees were required to show proof they voted for the regime, and votes for the FSLN were duplicated by regime-allied poll workers. Moreover, the regime mobilized party members to bring vulnerable individuals—such as hospital patients—to polling stations with the aim of abusing assisted vote mechanisms to unfairly obtain votes. FSLN party workers also set up surveillance points near polling stations from which they photographed and intimidated voters; at times, state security forces were also present near the polls. In addition to unfairly claiming the presidency, the FSLN also increased its majority in the National Assembly during the 2021 elections, winning 75 of 90 attainable seats. The remaining 15 seats were distributed among parties that have no real ability to challenge the ruling party. According to international bodies that regularly engage in independent electoral observation, like the European Council and the Organization of American States (OAS), Nicaragua’s 2021 general elections lacked democratic legitimacy due to the unfair electoral conditions and widespread irregularities.
Non-state actors, with ties to the regime, have systematically contributed to orchestrating electoral irregularities or fraud. Paramilitary groups armed and maintained by the regime have been deployed to intimidate and block voters during elections. According to CSOs Human Rights Watch and Urnas Abiertas, armed loyalists were present at some polling stations, along with state security forces, to intimidate voters during the 2021 elections. Furthermore, some dissidents were arbitrarily detained and surveilled at their homes by armed non-state actors as well as state security forces. These dissidents were effectively barred from going to vote and their neighbors and family members were harassed and intimidated. Ultimately, the informal but close collaboration between paramilitary forces and regime officials to unfairly maintain Ortega and Murillo in power was institutionalized in January 2025 with the creation of the regime’s volunteer police force.
The Ortega-Murillo regime has also systematically and unfairly barred real, mainstream opposition parties or candidates from competing in elections. Members of the opposition, including prominent political leaders, have been subjected to politically-motivated charges of corruption and treason. The regime has systematically leveraged its control over the judiciary and the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) to unfairly jail and bar opposition candidates from participating in elections. In 2021, seven presidential candidates were arrested under trumped-up charges—including treason, money laundering, and conspiring against national security—and imprisoned without a fair chance to challenge these accusations. For example, opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro was sentenced to eight years in prison for money laundering. Furthermore, the regime has leveraged its control over the CSE to arbitrarily strip arrested opposition leaders of their candidacy and opposition parties of their legal status—for instance, presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga’s party Citizens for Liberty (CxL) was stripped of its party status by the CSE in August 2021. At times, the regime has co-opted major opposition parties instead of eliminating them. For instance, the CSE and the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) have arbitrarily replaced real opposition party leaders with regime loyalists, converting well-known opposition parties, like the Independent Liberal Party (PLI), into a sham opposition.
Since 2023, hundreds of imprisoned political opponents and dissidents have been released; however, many of them have been stripped of their citizenship and forcibly expelled from the country. As a result, the majority of the real mainstream opposition in Nicaragua is currently either exiled or imprisoned. All real opposition parties have either been barred from participating in elections or taken over by regime loyalists. Moreover, a constitutional reform enacted in early 2025, along with long-standing practices of nepotism, has created both legal and de facto pathways for the Ortega-Murillo family to perpetuate itself in power by setting up a dynastic regime.
Independent media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, and members of the general public face overt and systematic retaliation if they openly criticize or challenge the regime of Daniel Ortega, Rosario Murillo, and the FSLN. Independent dissenting organizations have been systematically shut down, while dissidents regularly face arbitrary detention, physical abuse, forced expulsion from the country, and administrative and judicial harassment. Furthermore, protesters have been subject to excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and torture. In particular, armed non-state actors allied with the regime have been implicated in the killings of protestors. Non-state actors have also been known to engage in the transnational repression of exiled critics on behalf of the regime.
The regime in Nicaragua has systematically and unfairly shut down independent, dissenting organizations. Regime officials regularly leverage unfounded charges and unfair laws to strip CSOs and other independent entities of their legal status and seize their assets. Between 2018 and 2025, more than 5600 independent organizations were stripped of their legal status and shut down. This figure includes at least 54 media companies, such as the popular independent outlets La Prensa, 100% Noticias, and Confidencial, which also saw their assets seized by the Ortega-Murillo regime. In addition to shutting down the independent media, the regime has also systematically shut down private universities and confiscated their assets. Most notably, in 2023, the regime confiscated the campus and assets of the Jesuit-run University of Central America (UCA), alleging it was a “center of terrorism.” Other institutions, like the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua, were shut down due to alleged failures to comply with financial reporting requirements. Officials have systematically abused unfair laws, such as the Law of General Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations (Law no. 1115), which expands the regime officials’ ability to arbitrarily shut down dissenting organizations. The regime has also imposed unreasonable financial reporting requirements and other administrative obstructions, with the goal of leveraging supposed non-compliance to justify shutdowns. As a result of the widespread persecution against CSOs, media organizations, universities, and other independent entities, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) declared in 2023 that “organised civic activism and the defence of human rights have become almost impossible” in Nicaragua.
The Ortega-Murillo regime has also systematically and seriously intimidated and obstructed the work of independent, dissenting media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, and members of the general public. Dissidents regularly face physical aggression from regime officials, as well as the risk of arbitrary detentions and unfair imprisonment. The FSLN regime has gone as far as to forcibly expel hundreds of dissidents from the country in order to silence dissent in Nicaragua. Between 2023 and 2024, the Nicaraguan government expelled more than 300 political prisoners from the country and stripped more than 400 dissidents of their citizenship. Among those affected by the FSLN’s crackdown are politicians, journalists, priests, diplomats, leaders of indigenous communities, and activists. For instance, the prominent civil society leader Vilma Núñez de Escorcia, co-founder of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), was one of 94 dissidents stripped of their citizenship and declared “traitors to the nation” in February 2023. The regime also stripped the CENIDH of its legal status. In November 2025, the regime released approximately 40 political prisoners, but they were subsequently placed under house arrest. Moreover, the release of political prisoners during the last weeks of 2025 revealed that the total number of political prisoners in Nicaragua has been underreported. As of December 2025, at least 62 dissidents remained unfairly imprisoned in Nicaragua, some of whom have also been victims of enforced disappearances, according to the Nicaraguan CSO coalition, Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
After the regime’s authoritarian drift became more pronounced in 2018, Catholic religious leaders were targeted by the regime as they became outspoken critics of the FSLN. In 2022, the former Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, was arrested for his advocacy on behalf of political prisoners and dissidents. He was sentenced to 25 years of prison and stripped of his citizenship after an express trial. In January 2024, he was expelled to the Vatican. Journalists have also been systematically targeted by the regime. According to the exiled Nicaraguan CSO, the Foundation for Free Speech and Democracy, at least 300 journalists have been forced into exile since 2018. For instance, in 2021, La Prensa’s entire staff had to flee the country after regime officials raided the media company’s offices and shut down their operations; the newspaper now operates online and in exile.
The regime in Nicaragua has systematically, seriously, and unfairly repressed protests and gatherings. State security forces and pro-government paramilitary groups have used disproportionate and lethal force against protestors. Moreover, the regime has also unfairly imprisoned and forcibly disappeared protestors in order to squash dissent in Nicaragua. The last major protest movement to take place in Nicaragua began in April 2018. While protests were initially sparked by an unpopular social security law, they grew into nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations spearheaded by university students. In response, state security forces and pro-FSLN paramilitary groups led a violent crackdown on protesters and journalists: at least 355 people were killed, and thousands were injured and arbitrarily detained. The Ortega-Murillo regime attempted to bar media coverage of the protests and accused protestors of attempting to stage a coup d’état. After violently crushing the 2018 protest movement, the regime retaliated against student leaders and their allies. Students who participated in the protests were expelled from universities, professors who participated in the protests were fired, educational and religious institutions, like the UCA and the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua, that supported protesters were stripped of their legal status and shut down, and the arbitrary detention and prosecution of protesters persisted and intensified. According to Human Rights Watch, imprisoned dissidents faced unfair trials and trumped-up charges; they were sometimes tortured and coerced into recording false confessions. Since 2018, the regime has effectively eliminated the right to assembly and protest—for instance, individuals can be jailed for raising the Nicaraguan flag in public. In 2020, over a dozen opposition leaders were barred from leaving their homes by police forces to prevent them from leading anti-regime marches.
In response to dissidence abroad, the regime has also systematically engaged in, or enabled, transnational repression against critics in exile. Exiled dissidents have denounced direct harassment and threats by the Ortega-Murillo regime—including being subject to surveillance, verbal intimidation, judicial harassment, and coercion by proxy. Moreover, the regime has engaged in widespread administrative harassment, including the arbitrary deprivation of citizenship, which directly hinders dissidents’ ability to subsist abroad. According to the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, regime intelligence and military forces engage in the systematic digital surveillance of exiled dissidents. The regime intercepts private conversations, installs spyware onto dissidents’ devices, and occasionally issues direct verbal threats. Family members or close allies who remain in Nicaragua may also be subject to harassment in order to silence exiled dissidents, which can take the form of arbitrary denial of medical and educational services or dismissal from employment.
Between 2023 and 2024, the Ortega-Murillo regime stripped more than 400 dissidents of their citizenship, leaving many stateless. As a result, exiled dissidents can face additional challenges in finding jobs, accessing healthcare, and applying for residency permits. While not all exiled dissidents have been arbitrarily stripped of their citizenship, the regime also engages in other forms of administrative and legal harassment that hinder dissidents’ subsistence in exile. For instance, the Ortega-Murillo regime has been known to arbitrarily destroy the academic, professional, and identity records of dissidents as well as arbitrarily deny the issuing of passports—hindering exiled dissidents’ ability to qualify for employment, educational degrees, and residence permits. Moreover, the regime may seize the assets of exiled individuals, leaving them without resources. In all these ways, the regime in Nicaragua hampers the autonomy and subsistence of dissidents abroad.
Non-state actors tied to the regime have systematically contributed to the governing authority’s transnational repression, with paramilitary groups implicated in the kidnapping and assassination of dissidents abroad. In particular, dissidents in Costa Rica have been targeted by armed non-state actors, many of whom have been able to evade capture and remain anonymous. For instance, in January 2025, prominent FSLN critic Roberto Samcam was assassinated at his home in San José. The nature of these transnational crimes complicates identifying and holding perpetrators accountable. Nonetheless, evidence collected by dissidents, experts from the United Nations (UN), and the Costa Rican authorities credibly links the Ortega-Murillo regime to the attacks on exiled Nicaraguan dissidents. In September 2025, Costa Rican officials captured four individuals who are suspected of carrying out the assassination of Roberto Samcam. Media outlets also reported that a leaked report identified Nicaraguan intelligence officials as responsible for planning the murder; however, this information has not been confirmed by the Costa Rican authorities. In 2022, another outspoken protest leader, Rodolfo Rojas Cordero, was forcibly disappeared and assassinated. According to the CSO Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy, it is very likely that non-state actors kidnapped Rojas Cordero in Costa Rica and handed him over to FSLN-allied paramilitary groups in Nicaragua that tortured and killed him. Meanwhile, the exiled activist Joao Maldonado has been attacked twice in 2021 and 2024 by unknown actors with very probable ties to the regime and left seriously injured.
Institutions largely fail to serve as independent checks on the regime. In Nicaragua, the regime-controlled judiciary has been instrumental in the criminalization of the political opposition. Furthermore, oversight institutions, such as the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), have been undermined to the point that they are no longer independent. The regime has therefore been able to leverage its influence over the courts and oversight institutions to unfairly remain in power. The courts in Nicaragua also regularly facilitate unfair imprisonments and expatriations that silence critical voices. At the same time that critics are unfairly criminalized, regime officials are able to commit serious crimes with impunity. The FSLN has also undermined all of Nicaragua’s institutions to the point that the separation of powers has been effectively eliminated.
Courts have systematically and unfairly failed to check, and enabled, the regime’s attempts to significantly undermine electoral competition and make the electoral process significantly skewed in its favor. The regime-controlled judiciary has been instrumental in criminalizing the political opposition so as to perpetuate the co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s hold on power. Higher-level courts have been implicated in regime take-overs of prominent opposition parties as well as in unfairly depriving opposition leaders of their nationality. Meanwhile, lower-level criminal courts operate in highly irregular and opaque ways to unfairly sentence opposition leaders to prison on politically-motivated charges of treason, money laundering, among others.
In order to eliminate electoral competition in Nicaragua, the Ortega-Murillo regime has engaged in the judicial takeovers of prominent opposition parties and created a sham opposition. The Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) has played a central role in this strategy. In 2020 and 2016, the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) and the Independent Liberal Party (PLI) had their party presidents removed after regime-allied politicians leveled lawsuits against the party leadership. The CSJ resolved these lawsuits in favor of the regime loyalists, María Haydée Osuna and Pedro Reyes, and handed them the legal representation of the PLC and PLI, respectively. Shortly after being named party leaders, Osuna and Reyes initiated purges within the parties, eliminating members who were known opponents of the regime—such as the former PLI president Eduardo Montealegre. In particular, the CSJ-fasciliated takeover of the PLI party severely weakened the opposition coalition in the months leading up to the 2017 general elections.
Moreover, the judiciary has systematically enabled the persecution of opposition leaders by unfairly sentencing them to prison on politically-motivated charges, stripping them of their nationality, and issuing orders to forcibly expel opposition leaders from the country. In the months before the 2021 general elections, the Ortega-Murillo regime arrested seven presidential candidates on politically motivated charges. All seven opposition leaders were sentenced to prison by criminal courts in highly irregular proceedings held behind closed doors at the El Chipote prison. Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, Miguel Mora, and Medardo Mairena were sentenced to 13 years in prison, while Arturo Cruz and Noel Vidaurre were sentenced to nine years in prison—all on charges of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.” Meanwhile, Cristiana Chamorro, the FSLN’s biggest electoral threat, was sentenced to eight years in prison on money laundering charges, among other corruption charges. All seven opposition leaders were also barred from holding office by the courts. As Ortega and Murillo consolidated authoritarian rule after the 2021 elections, the regime leveraged the judiciary once more to expel prominent opposition leaders from the country and strip them of their nationality. In February 2023, the judge Octavio Ernesto Rothschuh Andino of the Managua Appeals Court issued a resolution declaring 222 political prisoners traitors and ordered their immediate deportation. All seven former presidential candidates were among those forcibly expelled and deprived of their nationality by the Managua Appeals Court.
The FSLN regime has also systematically subjected independent oversight institutions to reforms that abolish or seriously weaken their independence or operational effectiveness. Most notably, the regime’s interference in the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) has permitted it to unfairly remain in power. The regime consolidated its control over Nicaragua’s electoral institutions with the electoral reform of 2021. The reform modified appointment processes so that CSE members are directly nominated by the president and then approved by the National Assembly. Given that the Ortega-Murillo regime already wielded control over the executive and legislative branches, the FSLN effectively granted itself full control over appointments to the CSE. The Ortega-Murillo regime also expanded the CSE’s powers, granting it the ability to unilaterally and arbitrarily dissolve political parties. The accountability mechanisms that kept the CSE’s work somewhat transparent were also greatly diminished. Before the reform of 2021, the Ortega-Murillo regime had already interfered with the CSE through its undue influence over former CSE president Roberto Rivas Reyes, who led the institution from 2000 to 2018. Rivas Reyes played a key role in allowing Ortega to run for reelection early on in his rule, despite constitutional mandate limits, and is credited with facilitating the FSLN’s consolidation of power. In return, the regime protected Rivas Reyes from credible accusations of corruption and embezzlement of public funds. After the 2021 electoral reform, the FSLN filled the CSE with loyalists who proceeded to arbitrarily strip opposition parties of their legal status. One of the opposition parties, Citizens for Liberty (CxL), attempted to appeal the loss of its legal party status before the 2021 general elections, but the legal challenge was ultimately dismissed by the Managua Appeals Court.
The courts in Nicaragua have also systematically, frequently, and unfairly failed to check and have enabled the regime’s attempts to repress criticism and retaliate against those who express open opposition to its most prominent, widely publicized policies. The judiciary enables the jailing of dissidents on politically motivated charges, as well as the expatriation of dissidents. Dissidents are regularly sentenced to prison under trumped-up charges and subjected to unfair and violent conditions during trials. Regime officials have been known to deny dissidents their right to legal representation and subject political prisoners to torture during pre-trial detention. Since 2022, sham trials have taken place directly at the El Chipote prison, where hundreds of political prisoners have been held. Regime critic Dora María Téllez and student protest leader Lesther Alemán were convicted behind closed doors at El Chipote in February 2022 for “undermining national integrity.” Both Téllez and Alemán were later among the 222 political prisoners expelled from Nicaragua and deprived of their nationality in 2023 by Judge Octavio Ernesto Rothschuh Andino of the Managua Appeals Court. Another judge from the same court, Ernesto Leonel Rodríguez Mejía, stripped an additional 94 dissidents of their nationality that same year.
Judicial, legislative, and executive institutions have systematically, frequently, and unfairly failed to hold regime officials accountable. In Nicaragua, regime officials are able to commit serious crimes with impunity. Regime security forces employed excessive use of force to violently repress anti-regime protests in 2018, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of serious injuries. Security forces were not investigated or charged for these human rights violations, even when credible evidence exists of their involvement. In effect, the regime has taken measures across all three branches of government to ensure that regime officials and their armed non-state allies are not investigated or charged. In June 2019, the regime fast-tracked an Amnesty Law through the FSLN-controlled legislature, which granted “broad amnesty to all people who took part in the events that have taken place throughout Nicaragua from April 18, 2018, until this law enters into force.” Both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the OHCHR have condemned the vague and broad language of Nicaragua’s amnesty law, which is designed to foster impunity for serious human rights violations committed by the regime. Since January 2025, Ortega and Murillo officially oversee the National Police and the Ministry of Interior, eliminating the possibility of independent and fair investigations and prosecutions in Nicaragua.
The regime has systematically subjected judicial, legislative, and executive institutions to reforms that abolish or seriously weaken their independence and operational effectiveness. Ortega, Murillo, and the FSLN have systematically undermined the separation of powers to the point that institutional independence has been completely abolished in Nicaragua. Between December 2024 and January 2025, the National Assembly approved and promulgated profound reform of the Nicaragua Constitution—148 out of 198 articles were modified. What is notable about the 2025 reform is the way it institutionalizes the autocratic practices that the regime has been progressively adopting and effectively abolishes any formal separation of powers. For instance, the amendment to Article 132 makes the heads of state “coordinadors” of the judiciary, legislature, and executive branches. Moreover, the amendment to Article 136 also grants the co-presidents the sole capacity to propose candidates for the CSJ, veto legislative proposals, and directly appoint vice-presidents. With the new Article 137, the co-presidents also wield sole power over the appointments of the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, ministers, deputy ministers, and the directors of any government agencies. While the Ortega-Murillo regime had effectively undermined much of the independence of the judiciary, legislature, and executive branch prior to the constitutional reform of January 2025, the new amendments to the Constitution further entrench the concentration of power in the hands of the co-presidents and formally strip all the country’s institutions of any form of independence.
