Recent reports from the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua describe a troubling pattern of abuses carried out for political reasons. The findings confirm cases of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, torture, and other rights violations, alongside the withdrawal of citizenship in a manner that raises serious alarm about the state of civil liberties in the country.
The leading figures within the expert group emphasize that these actions are not isolated incidents. Instead, they argue that abuses have been occurring in a systematic and wide-ranging way, aimed at suppressing political dissent. Independent expert Jan Simon warned that people in Nicaragua live in fear of what the government might do to them, underscoring a climate of intimidation that permeates everyday life.
In response, the group called on the international community to implement sanctions targeting both national leaders and institutions, in order to address what they describe as a persistent pattern of silencing opposition through various means. The report singles out the president, Daniel Ortega, and his wife Rosario Murillo as central figures in this effort to instrumentalize state power across executive, legislative, judicial, and electoral spheres. The aim, according to the findings, has been to craft a legal and administrative framework that restricts fundamental freedoms and persecutes anyone who challenges the government.
Experts estimate that more than 3,100 nonprofits have shut down since 2018, with most independent media and human rights organizations having relocated operations abroad. The deterioration has continued in recent weeks, including the removal of hundreds of individuals labeled as traitors by the authorities in a sweeping measure that further restricts civic space.
Angela María Buitrago, a noted expert, highlighted how institutions have been used as tools of pressure. She explained that authorities have attempted to persecute, criminalize, and silence dissenting voices, a dynamic that has driven thousands to seek safety outside Nicaragua. The report also accuses authorities of obstructing investigations into abuses, noting that acts of physical and psychological torture have occurred within prisons, and that some of these violations hark back to the crackdown on protests in 2018.
Jan Simon stressed that the misconduct documented in the report implicates the state of Nicaragua at the highest level, and could give rise to both state accountability and individual criminal liability under national law or in other jurisdictions. He concluded by stressing that the international community now has clear knowledge of these patterns and, with that knowledge, a responsibility to act to protect rights and uphold international obligations.