Nicaragua

In late 2021, three decades after the end of Nicaragua’s civil war, the government cracked down harshly on opposition parties and staged a rigged election that confirmed President Daniel Ortega’s intention to establish a dynastic authoritarian regime. Thousands have fled the country since 2018, when a mass uprising spurred by an unpopular reform to the social security system was met with state violence, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Through its fieldwork and advocacy, Crisis Group seeks to contribute to a negotiated exit from the crisis and prevent further bloodshed.

CrisisWatch Nicaragua

Unchanged Situation

U.S. sanctioned 100 officials in response to govt crackdown; Managua granted asylum to Panama’s former president. 

Crackdown on religious organisations, civil society and opposition persisted. Inter-American Court of Human Rights 1 Feb called for immediate release of Brooklyn Rivera and Nancy Henriquez, Indigenous political leaders of outlawed Yatama party who have been detained since late 2023. Meanwhile, targeting of religious organisations and civil society continued. Notably, govt 6 Feb shuttered five evangelical NGOs; state’s official gazette 16 Feb reported closure of Scouting Association of Nicaragua alongside seven other NGOs, four of them religious, said authorities would confiscate assets of all eight groups. U.S. 16 Feb announced visa restrictions on over 100 Nicaraguan municipal officials, accusing them of supporting a regime that “continues to engage in a repressive campaign that silences civil society and unjustly detains courageous individuals for exercising their fundamental freedoms”. UN 29 Feb accused Nicaragua’s govt of “serious systematic human rights violations, tantamount to crimes against humanity”. 

In another important development. Ortega 7 Feb granted asylum to former Panamanian President Martinelli, whose July 2023 conviction for money laundering was upheld by Panama’s Supreme Court 2 Feb; move in line with Managua increasingly offering asylum to former Central American officials accused of corruption.

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In The News

14 Feb 2023
[Nicaraguan President Ortega] would prefer to revert to a steady, low-level authoritarian government in which there are perhaps none of the more visible forms of abuses b... Los Angeles Times

Ivan Briscoe

Program Director, Latin America and Caribbean

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