Country: Nicaragua Source: UN Human Rights Council GENEVA/PANAMA – Nicaragua’s Government has dismantled the last remaining checks on its power, systematically executing a strategy to cement total control of the country through severe human rights violations, UN experts warned today in a new report. The experts called for decisive international action to address these violations.The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua found that the regime of President Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, has deliberately transformed the country into an authoritarian State where no independent institutions remain, opposition voices are silenced, and the population – both inside and outside Nicaragua – faces persecution, forced exile, and economic retaliation.“Since 2018, Ortega and Murillo have moved step by step to entrench their total control,” said Jan Simon, Chair of the Group of Experts. “The state and the ruling Sandinista party have virtually fused into a unified machine of repression with domestic and transnational impact. Ortega and Murillo operate a wide intelligence machine, surveilling the population and selecting the targets for the violation of rights, acting as “the eyes and ears” that allow to obtain and maintain total control over people.”The report said that a sweeping constitutional reform which entered into force on 18 February represented a final blow to the rule of law. It eliminated what little remained of institutional checks and balances, creating an executive of **“**co-Presidents”. The move effectively reduced the judicial, legislative and electoral powers of the State to mere “bodies” to be “coordinated” by the presidency.Based on the testimony of multiple witnesses, the report details how Ortega and Murillo control a vast apparatus of state and para-state actors, including security forces, intelligence agencies, and the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which operate in unison to violate rights and suppress opposition. Functional diagrams appended to the report illustrate a clear top-down chain of command.The experts were also able, for the first time, to conclude that the Nicaraguan army – despite its denials – had participated together with the police and paramilitary groups in the bloody crackdown against mass national protests in 2018 that left over 300 people dead.The Government has expanded its use of arbitrary detention, arbitrary deprivation of nationality, and forced expulsions, targeting anyone perceived as a threat. In September 2024, 135 political prisoners were expelled to Guatemala and stripped of their nationality, making a total of 452 Nicaraguans who have been arbitrarily denationalized. In recent months, authorities have also intensified the confiscation of private property.“We are seeing the methodical repression of anyone who dares to challenge Ortega and Murillo’s grip on power. This is a Government at war with its own people,” said Ariela Peralta, a member of the Group of Experts.The experts stressed that some of the violations identified in this year’s report follow patterns previously established as crimes against humanity, particularly politically motivated persecution.As part of its investigation, the Group has compiled a list of individuals, in addition to Ortega and Murillo, believed to bear responsibility for these violations and crimes. These names will be transmitted to the Nicaraguan Government and the individuals concerned, and made public before the conclusion of the current session of the Human Rights Council on 4 April, after they have had an opportunity to respond.The report urged the international community to take decisive action, warning that inaction will only embolden the regime and prolong the suffering of the Nicaraguan people. The experts called for increased support for Nicaraguan civil society, including independent media and organizations working to document human rights abuses.The report also urged legal action against Nicaragua at the International Court of Justice for violations of the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, as well as the expansion of targeted sanctions against those responsible for repression.The experts highlighted the need for urgent measures to protect Nicaraguans who have been stripped of their nationality or forced into exile. Governments should ensure swift and fair asylum processes, facilitate the recognition of professional qualifications for exiled students and professionals, and take proactive steps to counter transnational repression. The report also called for these findings to be integrated into key international economic decisions, including International Monetary Fund assessments of Nicaragua’s financial governance and preferential trade agreements.“Nicaragua has become a place of surveillance and enforced silence for those who remain, while those who dare to resist, or are merely suspected of doing so, face a life of statelessness and exile,” said Reed Brody, a member of the Group of Experts.“The international community must not simply bear witness, but should take concrete measures – legal actions, prosecutions, and targeted sanctions - to hold the government and the individual perpetrators to account.”Background: The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua is an independent body mandated by the UN Human Rights Council. Established in March 2022, it is tasked to conduct thorough and independent investigations into all alleged human rights violations and abuses committed in Nicaragua since April 2018.For more information about the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua can be found here.For media queries, please contact: In Geneva: Todd Pitman, Media Adviser for the Human Rights Council’s Investigative Missions: todd.pitman@un.org or +41 76 691 1761; or Pascal Sim, Human Rights Council Media Officer: simp@un.org or +41 22 917 9763.