The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, did not rule out on Thursday, April 16, 2026, studying a possible regularization of Nicaraguans given the difficulties of these migrants or refugees in issuing documents from their embassy.
“I have no knowledge for sure how big the crisis may be for documenting Nicaraguan citizens. I don’t know. It hasn’t been raised to me as something serious either. However, I would be willing to assess what is appropriate to be able to help those people,” said the Panamanian president.
Mulino indicated that Nicaraguans are people who have been in Panama for “a long time” and that they could have “a status,” given the “special situation that this Central American country is experiencing.”
The president compared the supposed difficulty of Nicaraguan migrants in processing their passports with that of Venezuelans.
“What you say about the documentation, I don’t doubt it. That’s what happened with Venezuela. Simply the person who was going to ask for a police record or make a request for a report was already considered an enemy of the State, they didn’t give it to him and they harassed him, etc. Anyway, I understand, it’s happening there.”
The obstacles of the Ortega-Murillo regime
The Government of Nicaragua does not renew passports of journalists, human rights activists, religious people and opposition leaders whose passports have expired. Nor does it apostille documents to present to third countries, according to complaints collected by international organizations.
It has also stripped hundreds of Nicaraguans who oppose the regime of their nationality.
Until March of this year, 12,501 Nicaraguans entered Panama legally through checkpoints, 844 obtained legal residence in the country, 172 were detained for being in an irregular situation and 69 were expelled, according to figures from the National Immigration Service. There are no figures for those without regular immigration status.
The Panamanian president maintains a tense relationship with the Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, going so far as to describe Nicaragua in December 2024 as a country “that has neither God nor Law” and does not respect international law.
Mulino gave those controversial statements while former president Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), His political godfather, whom he replaced in extremis after disqualification in the 2024 elections, was taking refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama after a conviction against him for corruption.
Martinelli is currently seeking asylum in Colombia after a frustrated attempt to go to Managua.
