MEXICO CITY — According to a panel of United Nations experts, the Nicaraguan government has eradicated the last existing checks and balances, pursuing a systematic strategy to establish total control over the nation through extreme human rights abuses. This latest report marks the strongest denunciation yet of the government led by President Daniel Ortega and his wife, First Lady and now Co-President Rosario Murillo, who have been suppressing dissent and civil society for years.
The campaign against opposition voices began with the brutal suppression of protests in 2018. Since those events, the experts claim, the Nicaraguan government has deliberately turned the nation into an authoritarian regime. This crackdown has driven tens of thousands of citizens into exile.
Jan Simon, the chair of the U.N. Group of Experts, provided a statement indicating that the state and the Sandinista Party have essentially merged into a cohesive apparatus of repression, impacting both domestically and transnationally. Simon highlighted that Ortega and Murillo are running an extensive intelligence network to monitor the population and target individuals for rights violations, acting as the “eyes and ears” necessary for maintaining their control over the populace.
The government of Nicaragua did not provide a comment in response to these allegations.
In what the experts termed as the final blow to democracy, the Nicaraguan Congress passed a constitutional reform firmly controlled by Ortega and Murillo’s Sandinista Party last month. This reform, effective as of February 18, effectively consolidates all branches of government under presidential authority, officially designating Ortega and Murillo as “co-presidents” and ensuring succession for Murillo and their family.
Additionally, the reform extended presidential terms from five to six years, further tightening the family’s grasp on power. The UN experts’ report indicates that beyond governmental dominance, Ortega and Murillo have intensified their use of arbitrary detention, forced expulsions, property confiscation, and the revocation of citizenship from opposition figures.
The panel of experts compiled a list of individuals they hold accountable for the ongoing repression. This list will be shared with the Nicaraguan government and disclosed through the UN Human Rights Council. The experts urge the international community to pursue legal actions and broaden targeted sanctions against the identified individuals while offering greater protection for Nicaraguan expatriates.
