The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) confirmed in its 2025 annual report that the “civic and democratic space remains completely closed” in Nicaragua, while the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo continues the “intensification of transnational repression” against exiled people, their families and civil society organizations that continue their work from exile.
He report —which includes a special chapter on Nicaragua— details that the closure of civic space is the result of the “cancellation of thousands of social organizations, criminalization and the de facto prohibition of any public meeting.” The regime has canceled more than 5,600 non-governmental organizations, out of a total of 7,227 established in 2018.
In the country, according to the document, “all forms of social organization, public expression or religious manifestation” continue to be criminalized, which has been possible due to the “subordination of all powers to the Executive, as well as the installation of a scenario where limits and balances to the exercise of power are non-existent.
The regime intensified the persecution against religious communities and deepened the criminalization of “indigenous authorities, human rights defenders, activists, members of political parties, former soldiers and even people linked to the regime itself or the official party.”
“Since 2018, the country has remained under a police state, characterized by control, surveillance and repression exercised by the Executive through state and parastatal security institutions, against any person perceived as an opponent, even beyond its borders,” said the human rights organization.
The IACHR explained that the situation in Nicaragua constitutes a “serious violation of the fundamental elements and institutions of representative democracy” provided for in the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which is why they decided to dedicate a chapter again in their annual report.
“Transnational persecution” policy
The IACHR report also documents practices of harassment, threats and attacks against Nicaraguans in exile, which constitutes a “policy of transnational persecution incompatible with international human rights law.”
Transnational persecution aims to “silence” those who are considered opponents of the regime, even when they are in exile.
According to the document, the regime has also misused international cooperation mechanisms to “persecute and silence dissent beyond the national territory.”
Nicaraguans in situations of human mobility, particularly human rights defenders and opponents in exile, report being victims of persecution, harassment, surveillance, violence and threats, facts that they attribute to “agents or people linked to the regime.”
Since 2018, as documented by the IACHR, at least six people perceived as opponents were murdered as part of this “cross-border violence.” The Commission regretted the murder of retired Army major, Roberto Samcam, occurred on June 19, 2025 at his home in San José, Costa Rica.
Extradition requests against asylum seekers, the “improper use” of red alerts from the International Police (Interpol), the blocking of access to the banking system of Nicaraguan people and organizations abroad, also constitute practices of transnational repression.
Regime “incompatible” with democratic principles
With the entry into force, on February 18, 2025, of the “Chamuca” Constitution, which modified at least 100 articles —the IACHR stressed—, the regime adopted a “direct democracy model” that centralizes power in the figure of the co-presidency and resulted in:
- The assumption of the position of “co-president” by Murillo, “without an electoral process”, and the de facto extension of Ortega’s mandate.
- The approval of a new Electoral Law in line with the Constitution.
- It subordinated the Judicial Branch to the Executive, and in May 2025, a new Organic Law of the Judicial system that de facto eliminated the judicial career.
- The Public Ministry passed under “direct presidential control.”
- It established voluntary police and patriotic reserve forces made up of civilians, that is, “legalizes security forces with political affiliation and parapolice groups.”
The IACHR reiterated its “concern about the scope and purpose of the constitutional amendments, whose effect is to perpetuate the absolute concentration of power in the Ortega-Murillo family and neutralize any possibility of reestablishing the democratic order.”
In Nicaragua, they point out that the “de facto prohibition” of any public gathering persists, including religious demonstrations. Since 2018, according to the report, more than 300 priests, nuns and religious people of the Catholic Church have been forced to abandon their pastoral work in Nicaragua.
These actions, the document states, demonstrate the “persistence of a repressive policy to criminalize religious expressions and completely control the civic and democratic space in Nicaragua.”
They continue with arbitrary arrests
The organization recalled that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that “Nicaragua has entered a new and worrying phase of erosion of the rule of law, further deepening the previous trends of concentration of power” of the regime.
During 2025, the agency obtained information on “patterns of repression, consisting of the concealment or forced disappearance” of people arbitrarily detained.
The fact that the families of political prisoners tour multiple detention centers in search of information, it is considered “a deliberate act of psychological exhaustion” and “one of the cruelest expressions of repression in Nicaragua.”
In an interview on the program This week that is transmitted in the CONFIDENCIAL YouTube channeldue to television censorship in Nicaragua, the IACHR rapporteur for Nicaragua, Rosa María Payá, explained that “Nicaragua is currently one of the most critical cases of human rights in the region.”
“The human rights crisis has continued steadily for more than eight years, since the Commission We see with concern how the State continues to hold political prisoners, “continues to violate fundamental rights of Nicaraguans, even engaging in episodes of transnational repression,” Payá reiterated.
The IACHR found that a sustained pattern of harassment by state actors against journalists and independent media workers persists, which includes “arbitrary arrests and raids, forced disappearances, forced exiles, and the arbitrary deprivation of nationality.”
They urge to overcome human rights “crisis”
Given this situation, they called on the Nicaraguan State to adopt the necessary measures to “overcome the human rights crisis through the reestablishment of democratic institutions, the full validity of the rule of law and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression.” The organization, among other things, also recommended:
- End impunity for human rights violations since 2018.
- Annul “state policies and practices that generate forced displacement, exile and statelessness.”
- Release all political prisoners.
- Restore the nationality of all the people who were removed.
- Create processes that promote “truth, justice and reparation for victims.”
- Comply with the precautionary measures granted by the Commission and the provisional measures of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAC Court).
- Return confiscated facilities and property.
- Cease the persecution against the Catholic Church.
In countries to which the IACHR does not have access, such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the human rights organization obtains updates on the situation from information provided by civil society.
