A group of 30 former Ibero-American presidents who make up the IDEA Group asked on Friday, June 5, 2026, to use universal jurisdiction to investigate the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo by accusing it of “crimes against humanity” for his responsibility in the death of the indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera.
The former presidents asked—in a statement— an international criminal investigation against the Nicaraguan Government for the death of the opposition leader Rivera, leader of the Yatama indigenous party, who died after more than 790 days of arbitrary detention in an unknown whereabouts.
In the text, the signatories “demand that the international community and the democracies of the Americas assume their obligations of collective protection and exercise universal jurisdiction in the face of the absolute impossibility of the Nicaraguan State, by colluding with the forced disappearances, to carry out an impartial investigation.”
Forced disappearance is a serious violation of human rights and has become a tool of repression of the Ortega regime.
The former presidents denounced the “crimes against humanity” of the “regime” presided over by the “co-presidents” Ortega and Murillo.
With this statement, the signatories join the complaints from organizations such as the UN and Amnesty International regarding the death of Rivera, arrested on September 29, 2023 and died on May 30, 2026 in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Managua, where he had been admitted since March 7 of this year due to respiratory complications.
The former presidents who sign the statement are:
- Mario Abdo, Paraguay
- Carlos Alvarado, Costa Rica
- Jeanine Añez C., Bolivia
- Oscar Arias, Costa Rica
- José María Aznar, Spain
- Nicolás Ardito Barletta, Panama
- Felipe Calderon, Mexico
- Rafael Ángel Calderón, Costa Rica
- Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica
- Alfredo Cristiani, El Salvador
- Ivan Duque, Colombia
- Vicente Fox Q., Mexico
- Federico Franco, Paraguay
- Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Chile
- Luis Alberto Lacalle, Uruguay
- Guillermo Lasso M., Ecuador
- Mauricio Macri, Argentina
- Jamil Mahuad W., Ecuador
- Hipólito Mejía, Dominican Republic
- Carlos Mesa G., Bolivia
- Lenin Moreno, Ecuador
- Mireya Moscoso, Panama
- Andrés Pastrana, Colombia
- Jorge Tuto Quiroga, Bolivia
- Miguel Ángel Rodríguez E., Costa Rica
- Julio María Sanguinetti, Uruguay
- Luis Guillermo Solis, Costa Rica
- Álvaro Uribe V., Colombia
- Juan Carlos Wasmosy, Paraguay
- Asdrúbal Aguiar A., general secretary of IDEA
“Individual” responsibility for crimes against humanity
The death of the indigenous leader joins six other people who have died in state detention in Nicaragua for their opposition to the Government.
Furthermore, United Nations experts denounced on Wednesday, June 3, 2026 that six relatives of Rivera, 73 years old, forcibly disappeared when they came to claim their remains.
Among the six people detained are close family members and people in their immediate environment: their sister, Alda López Bryan; his nephews Kurney Valle Bushy and Jorbis Hendy López; and his friend Jorge Webster Rojas.
The former presidents of the IDEA Group, mostly on the right, argued that “crimes against humanity are individual responsibility and are proscribed by imperative law (ius cogens).”
For this reason, they added, “attributable rulers are not exempt even when their States are not part of the international treaties and agreements that establish them.”
They also maintained that “the serious human rights violations that occurred under the Ortega-Murillo regime are systematic and widespread.”
There are still 47 political prisoners in the country, and of 9 their whereabouts and conditions are still unknown, including two who remain anonymous for “security reasons,” according to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
With information from EFE
