On September 23, 2025, the United Nations brought the world’s attention to a deepening human rights crisis in Nicaragua, highlighting a country where power is concentrated in the hands of co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. According to a series of reports presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Nicaragua’s government has systematically dismantled democratic institutions, eroded civil society, and extended its repressive apparatus beyond its borders in ways that have shocked international observers and devastated thousands of lives.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights’ report—compiled from more than 200 interviews with victims, witnesses, and other sources—paints a stark picture of a nation where the legislative and judicial branches are now mere extensions of the executive. The report, as cited by the Associated Press, notes that a constitutional reform adopted in January 2025 reduced “the legislative and judicial branches to entities coordinated by and subordinated to the presidency,” while the public prosecutor’s office “was placed under direct presidential control.”
What’s more, the U.N. denounced the “constitutional recognition of paramilitary forces, the institutionalized use of informant networks and surveillance and the misapplication of criminal offenses.” This legal framework, the report warns, has created a climate in which “any person perceived as opposing the authorities may be subjected to retaliation.”
These developments are not news to the tens of thousands of Nicaraguans who have fled their homeland in recent years, seeking refuge from a wave of repression that began in earnest in 2018. That year, widespread protests against the Ortega-Murillo regime were met with violent government crackdowns. More than 300 people were killed, and many more—including journalists and civil society leaders—fled the country. Ortega, for his part, has continued to insist that the protests were an attempted coup orchestrated with foreign backing.
Since then, the situation has only worsened. As U.N. experts stated in February 2025, the Nicaraguan government “has deliberately transformed the country into an authoritarian state.” Civil society, once vibrant and diverse, has been all but wiped out. Andrés Sánchez Thorin, the U.N. Human Rights Office representative in Central America, explained, “Since 2018, eight of every 10 organizations have been canceled or had to close, many of them religious and their assets confiscated.” He added that reforms to the electoral system have placed political pluralism in “serious danger,” undermining the fundamental right of Nicaraguans to participate in their country’s democratic life.
Beneath the surface, a far-reaching and complex surveillance network has taken root. Another report, presented the same day to the Human Rights Council by the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN), reveals the extent of the Ortega-Murillo regime’s campaign to monitor, intimidate, and silence perceived opponents—both inside and outside Nicaragua. Titled Nicaragua: Persecution Beyond Borders — Exile and Transnational Human Rights Violations, the document details a “multi-layered intelligence architecture” involving the Army, Police, foreign service, and non-state agents. At its center is the Directorate of Information for the Defense of the Army, Nicaragua’s military intelligence agency.
This network targets a wide array of individuals: former Sandinista and Contra combatants, ex-military members, journalists, political figures, activists, and human rights defenders. Surveillance is both physical and digital. Undercover officials and informants, according to the report, carry out “physical and digital surveillance of persons of interest, report on their movements and associations, and in some cases, directly harass and threaten them.” The National Police intelligence services maintain “close coordination” with the Army, sharing dissident profiles and intercepting communications and mobility data.
Social media platforms have become a “central axis” of state-sponsored digital surveillance. Specialized units monitor posts, photographs, comments, and digital connections, using algorithms and keyword tracking to identify content critical of the government. People who speak out are profiled and subjected to doxing, threats—including death threats—and coordinated smear campaigns. These campaigns are often orchestrated by so-called “troll farms” and networks of bots linked to pro-government youth organizations and state agencies.
One victim, interviewed by the Group of Experts, recounted, “On social media I’ve received threats, saying I will end up dead in a ditch in Spain, because that is the fate of traitors.” Another described being stalked by a police officer involved in their kidnapping in 2020, even after fleeing Nicaragua: “Behind where I live is a police officer who was involved in my kidnapping in 2020. I’ve seen him several times, and when he sees me, he hides. I felt that someone was watching me a lot, until one day I realized it was him.”
The reach of this repression is truly global. Nicaraguans in exile have reported harassment and threats in Costa Rica, Honduras, Belgium, Guatemala, Spain, and the United States. The regime’s tactics include hacking, installation of spyware, and interception of phone calls—sometimes with the cooperation of telecommunications providers. Victims have reported dropped calls, interference, and the chilling experience of having private conversations repeated back to them by unknown callers, indicating real-time surveillance.
But the consequences extend far beyond digital harassment. The Ortega-Murillo regime has engaged in what the U.N. calls “transnational repression.” This includes the arbitrary deprivation of nationality, travel bans, confiscation of property and pensions, and the misuse of international mechanisms such as Interpol Red Notices. Exiles often find themselves unable to renew passports or access the banking system, while their family members back in Nicaragua face harassment, arbitrary detention, dismissal from jobs, confiscation of property, and restrictions on their freedom of movement—simply because of their familial ties.
All of these actions, the Group of Experts emphasizes, are part of “a coherent and deliberate state policy aimed at silencing dissent, eradicating opposition voices abroad, and ensuring impunity for crimes committed within Nicaragua.” The report concludes that these are “serious violations of international human rights law which, in some cases, prima facie constitute crimes against humanity.”
The U.N. human rights office, notably, does not have access to Nicaragua, and the government did not respond to its questionnaire. Yet the evidence gathered—through hundreds of interviews and extensive documentation—offers a grim window into a country where basic freedoms have been systematically stripped away, and where the threat of surveillance and retaliation now shadows not only those who remain, but also those who have fled.
As international pressure mounts and the world takes stock of the Ortega-Murillo regime’s actions, the future of Nicaragua’s democracy and civil society remains deeply uncertain, caught between fear, exile, and the hope for meaningful change.