United Nations human rights experts called on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government on Oct. 3 to clarify the fate and whereabouts of more than 120 individuals who appear to have been forcibly disappeared after the violent suppression of anti-government protests in 2018. The experts also urged the state to cease using arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance as tools of political repression.
In a press release issued through the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the experts warned that families’ repeated attempts to locate their loved ones have been met with conflicting information, silence or threats. They documented a pattern in which detainees are held in secret and often denied access to lawyers, medical care or family contact, underscoring that “keeping families in the dark” acts as a mechanism of control.
The experts emphasized that state responsibility is implicated under international law where disappearances are secret, prolonged, and accompanied by torture or death in custody. They argued that such practices amount to a deliberate strategy to eliminate dissent, erode due process, and instill fear across society.
The appeal comes amid broader findings by the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, which in recent reports has documented escalating repression, including transnational targeting of exiles, denial of passports, asset confiscation, and forced deprivation of nationality. The experts have also identified high-level officials in their 2025 report, connecting command structures to human rights violations across the state apparatus.
While the Nicaraguan government has largely remained non-responsive to such demands since 2018, the experts called on it to cooperate with UN mechanisms, provide full and prompt information to affected families, release those unlawfully detained, and launch independent investigations into alleged abuses.
International observers say this development could increase pressure on Managua to allow more access and accountability, particularly as it faces scrutiny from regional bodies and human rights treaty systems. Whether the Ortega administration will respond remains uncertain—but the UN experts’ call adds a renewed spotlight to a long-standing human rights crisis.
From JURIST, Oct. 4. Used with permission.
Image: Nunca Más
Nicaragua: children of the revolution devoured
Mauricio Alonso Prieto, local president of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (now renamed UNAMOS) in the department of Carazo, was abducted along with his wife and son on July 17. Alonso's wife was released that same day, but he and his son remained in detention. His remains were returned to his family on Aug. 25. (Havana Times)
On Sept. 29, veteran Sandinista guerrilla and Nicaragua's former defense minister Humberto Ortega—older brother of President Daniel Ortega—died in a military hospital at 77. He had been under effective house arrest, with troops surrunding his home, since Argentine news outlet Infobae published a lengthy interview with him, in which he criticized the growing authoritarianism of his brother. (AP)
Mass revocation of lawyer credentials in Nicaragua
The UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) on July 13 a condemnedthe government’s revocation of the credentials of numerous lawyers and notaries.
According to testimonies from those affected, there was no notification, legal basis, nor official explanation for the revocation. Many did not know they had been stripped of their licenses until they attended the courthouse or attempted to file legal documents.
The GHREN warned that this action “effectively erased” a crucial part of the legal profession in Nicaragua, thereby removing citizens’ right to legal defense. GHREN member Reed Brody stated:
Brody said that there are “at least hundreds, if not thousands of lawyers” affected by the move.
Those affected are former judicial officials and lawyers who have been living in exile, former members of the ruling Sandinista party, and others who have no clear affiliation. Attacks like these have been a consistent finding of the GHREN, as expert member Ariela Peralta says:
Juan Diego Barberena, a lawyer and human rights defender who has been exiled in Costa Rica, was among those stripped of accreditation. In a recent interview, Barberena described the move as the “dictatorship…wanting to prevent lawyers, experts and academics from participating in the future of the country’s institutions. This is a means of exercising totalitarian control over the legal profession.”
The experts’ report notes an erosion of the legal profession that began in 2023 with the arbitrary and permanent suspension of at least 25 lawyers. Some were former political prisoners, and others were part of a group stripped of their nationality after being accused of being “traitors to the homeland.”
Additionally, in October 2023, police took over the Supreme Court of Justice, leading to numerous judicial officials and being forced out. The government solidified its control over the judiciary through constitutional reforms in 2025, winning criticism from human rights groups. (Jurist)