Human Rights Crisis: U.N. Experts Declare Nicaragua a Dictatorship

United Nations human rights experts issued a stark assessment of Nicaragua’s political environment on Wednesday, asserting that the country has become a full dictatorship.

The panel, which has investigated allegations of abuses since April 2018, stated there are reasonable grounds to believe crimes against humanity have been committed. Jan-Michael Simon, the chair of the group appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, told reporters that the regime’s primary goal is permanent dynastic rule.

Simon cited a statement made by President Daniel Ortega four months prior, in which the leader declared that Nicaragua would never hold elections again. The experts documented actions by Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Managua, aimed at eliminating opposition. These actions include arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, political persecution, and the stripping of citizenship from opponents.

The timeline of this consolidation of power dates back to mass protests in 2018. A government crackdown during that period killed hundreds of people. Ortega declared himself the winner of the 2021 election, a result the international community widely viewed as illegitimate, after jailing all candidates who could have defeated him. The United States does not recognize Ortega’s presidency.

Since 2018, the government has imprisoned or exiled adversaries, religious leaders, and journalists. Officials have stripped hundreds of their citizenship, homes, and possessions. The state has shuttered more than 5,000 organizations, largely religious ones, and forced thousands of citizens to flee the country. The government frequently accuses its critics of working for the United States and its enemies.

Reed Brody, a member of the U.N. expert group and a Hungarian American human rights lawyer, said the ruling Sandinista Party has total control over the police, courts, and prisons. Under the constitution adopted last year, the legislature and judiciary are no longer independent. Brody noted that no opposition parties, independent press, or critical non-governmental organizations remain inside the country.

Brody reported that at least 452 Nicaraguans considered political opponents have been declared traitors and stripped of their citizenship since February 2023. This includes former Sandinista leaders, a former vice president, and all presidential candidates from 2021. A transnational surveillance network monitors and intimidates hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans abroad. The experts urge countries to bring a case against Nicaragua to the International Court of Justice for violating the convention on statelessness, though Nicaragua is not a party to the International Criminal Court.