Indigenous defenders killed amid ongoing land disputes; Civic freedoms crippled by Nicaragua’s new constitutional amendments

General

Government legalises paramilitary forces under new Constitution

On 15th January 2025, the government swore in 1,700 “voluntary police officers” in Estelí, northern Nicaragua, as part of the implementation of the new Constitution (see association), which formally establishes these groups as auxiliary forces of the National Police. Human rights organisations warned that this legalises the paramilitary units responsible for the 2018 crackdown, when at least 355 protesters were killed. By March 2025, authorities had reportedly sworn in around 76,800 voluntary police.

Association

Killings of Miskito and Mayangna land defenders

On 8th November 2024, two Miskito brothers, Guzmán and Marlon Ocampo Cruz, were killed in the community of Kirara, located in the Alto Wangki Indigenous Territory of San José de Bocay, Jinotega Department, northern Nicaragua. The case was presented before the Criminal Court of Jinotega, with prosecutors arguing that the motive was to seize Indigenous property through violence.

These killings occurred in the context of ongoing land disputes and tensions between Indigenous communities and settlers, known locally as colonos, in Nicaragua’s northern and Caribbean regions. Armed groups have attacked members of the Miskito and Mayangna people, many of whom have been engaged in defending their traditional lands. Civil society organisations have also indicated that land transfers sometimes occur through fraudulent titles and informal markets, while state institutions have not consistently implemented protection measures or ensured effective enforcement of land rights recognised in national and international law.

A new killing was reported weeks later. On 22nd December 2024, Roy Dilson Devis Blandón, a young Mayangna man from the Betlehem community in Rosita, North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, was killed by armed settlers, according to community testimony. Residents had previously filed complaints against the suspects, yet the police reportedly failed to intervene. Witnesses stated that Devis Blandón had denounced settler incursions in Mayangna territories, suggesting that his murder was linked to his community defence work.

The Centre for Legal Assistance to Indigenous Peoples (CALPI) estimates that, over the past decade, around 70 Miskito and Mayangna people have been killed by settlers. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has documented similar concerns, noting in its 2024 report (A/HRC/57/20) a pattern of recurring violence against Indigenous peoples. The report cited incidents from July 2023, when two Indigenous Forest guards were killed in the Mayangna Sauni As territory, and observed that investigations had not advanced.

Wave of arbitrary detentions

On 24th December 2024, police officers arbitrarily detained Pablo Amaya, a pulmonologist, while he was attending a patient at his private clinic in León, western Nicaragua. The officers, led by Commissioner Fidel Domínguez, a senior police official known for his loyalty to President Daniel Ortega and Vice-President Rosario Murillo, entered without a warrant and used force to detain him. Although the authorities did not disclose his whereabouts, local media reported that he was taken to El Chipote, a detention facility widely denounced by human rights organisations for torture and ill-treatment.

According to Monitoreo Azul y Blanco, a Nicaraguan human rights civil society organisation in exile, Amaya is among 22 people detained since 22nd November 2024. The group documented detentions across at least ten departments, with León among the most affected. Those detained include activists, academics and journalists.

Monitoreo Azul y Blanco described the situation as “alarming”, citing families detained together—including minors and at least ten older adults in vulnerable conditions—whose whereabouts remain unknown. The organisation warned that authorities routinely withhold information from relatives and use enforced disappearance as a tool of intimidation, perpetuating a climate of fear and repression.

According to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua, 42 people are currently being arbitrarily deprived of their liberty under conditions that fail to meet basic standards of human dignity. These cases form part of a broader pattern of repression, with over 2,000 arbitrary detentions documented since the onset of the 2018 crackdown.

Sweeping constitutional reforms limit civic freedoms

On 30th January 2025, the National Assembly, controlled by the ruling Sandinista party, approved sweeping constitutional reforms that grant President Daniel Ortega and Vice-President Rosario Murillo near-absolute powers. Presented by Ortega in November 2024, the overhaul passed without dissent and came into force on 18th February 2025. In practice, it restructured 185 of 198 constitutional articles, formalising the erosion of checks and balances and creating a centralised co-presidency that subordinates the judiciary, legislature and local governments to executive control.

Article 121 formally establishes a dual presidency system, while Article 123 extends the presidential term from five to six years. The reform also dismantled core constitutional safeguards, notably by repealing Article 46, which had previously recognised the American Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as having constitutional status.

Other provisions directly restrict civic freedoms. Article 24 now defines “traitors to the homeland” as persons who lose Nicaraguan nationality, providing constitutional cover to the arbitrary deprivation of Nicaraguan nationality as a repressive tactic, with at least 317 cases documented since 2023 by the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN).

On 16th May 2025, the National Assembly approved an additional constitutional reform that further restricts citizenship rights. The amendment to Articles 23 and 25 stipulates that Nicaraguans automatically lose their nationality upon acquiring another, and that foreign nationals must renounce their original citizenship to be naturalised, except Central Americans by origin. The reform, which entered into force on 20th May 2025, reinforces the government’s use of nationality laws to silence dissent and consolidate authoritarian control.

On 29th November 2024, complementary migration reforms were adopted (Law No. 1228), granting the Ministry of the Interior broad powers to revoke nationality, residency and passports. The General Directorate of Migration and Foreigners (DGME), headed by a close political ally of the Ortega–Murillo administration, has been accused of arbitrarily denying passport renewals, leaving over a hundred people in de facto statelessness. The law also introduced prison sentences of two to six years for irregular border crossings, a measure that would restrict movement for citizens and exiles fleeing political persecution to neighbouring Costa Rica and Honduras.

Press freedom has also been affected. The reform removes the constitutional ban on press censorship, with Article 62 granting the government broader powers to restrict independent media. Under the new Article 30, freedom of expression is subordinated to the “imperatives of security, peace and welfare”.

These broad constitutional reforms further consolidated nearly unlimited powers in the hands of the presidency, marking a new stage in Nicaragua’s systematic dismantling of civic space. According to GHREN, this development represents the fourth period of an ongoing cycle of repression against civil society that began in April 2018. The first phase (2018–2020) followed mass protests met with lethal and excessive force, alongside the adoption of a 2019 Amnesty Act that shielded perpetrators of serious human rights violations from accountability.

Since 2021, the authorities have systematically dismantled democratic institutions: dissolving opposition parties, detaining political leaders and journalists, and censoring or raiding independent media outlets. By 2022, repression had also extended to the Catholic Church and opposition mayors, while the government revoked the legal status of thousands of civil society organisations and private universities.

New banking law expands state control and threatens CSO’s operations

On 27th December 2024, the National Assembly approved the Law on the Administration of the Monetary and Financial System, which gives the government unprecedented powers over the private banking sector. As documented by the CIVICUS Lens, the law authorises the government to appoint and remove bank directors, supervise all financial operations and abolish banking secrecy. Civil society warned that the measure could be used to access financial information and silence dissent.

The law extends state control over the Central Bank and the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions, consolidating executive influence over the economy and the financial system. It also empowers the government to request financial data from banks on any legal entity, including civil society organisations, adding to the restrictions already imposed under the Foreign Agents Regulation Act and the Non-Profit Organisations Regulation Act. These laws reinforce a centralised legal and political system that seeks greater state control over all economic activity.

Authorities continue mass closure of civil society organisations

Between November 2024 and May 2025, the Ministry of the Interior arbitrarily cancelled the legal status of at least 75 civil society organisations, applying Law No. 1115 on the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organisations. The measure forms part of an ongoing tactic to suppress independent civil society.

On 15th November 2024, authorities revoked the registration of 15 organisations, including Plan International. Further closures followed on 4th December (10 organisations, including a women’s entrepreneurship group), 8th January 2025 (15 organisations, among them Save the Children International), 29th January (10 mostly faith-based organisations), 28th March (10 organisations, mostly focused on education and development cooperation), and 26th May (15 organisations, including the Union of Journalists of Nicaragua).

These closures have been accompanied by the illegitimate confiscation of assets, depriving communities of essential social, educational, and humanitarian services. According to the Central American Association for Development and Democracy, more than 5,500 organisations have been arbitrarily closed since 2007.

Government withdraws from multiple UN bodies

Between February and May 2025, Nicaragua withdrew from five United Nations bodies, deepening its international isolation and further weakening essential mechanisms for protecting human rights defenders and journalists, as well as the work of civil society organisations.

On 3rd February 2025, the government ordered the closure of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) offices in Nicaragua after releasing data showing that undernourishment had risen from 19.2 per cent to 19.6 per cent between 2021 and 2023. Weeks later, on 27th February, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Jürg Lauber, President of the UN Human Rights Council, of the country’s withdrawal from the body. The decision came shortly after the GHREN published a report implicating the Nicaraguan Army in crimes against humanity, including arbitrary detention, torture and persecution of political opponents.

The following day, the government announced its withdrawal from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), accusing both institutions of “politicisation and interference”. On 4th May 2025, UNESCO confirmed that Nicaragua had also withdrawn, after the organisation awarded the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to La Prensa, an independent newspaper now operating from exile. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay expressed regret, warning that the decision would deprive Nicaraguans of vital cooperation in education and culture.

Expression

Journalist Catalino Leo Cárcamo disappears after arbitrary detention

On 22nd November 2024, officials arbitrarily detained journalist Catalino Leo Cárcamo in the Department of León, and authorities have since failed to disclose his whereabouts. Relatives and colleagues have repeatedly requested information but received no official response. Cárcamo has been under precautionary measures by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) since 2018, because of the threats he faced as Head of the Press Department at Radio Darío. His age and pre-existing health conditions further increase his vulnerability.

On 3rd January 2025, the IACHR requested the expansion of provisional measures before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, urging the State to clarify Cárcamo’s situation and ensure his protection. The Commission warned that his disappearance forms part of a wider pattern of arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances affecting political prisoners and human rights defenders in Nicaragua.

Journalist detained in León

On 9th February 2025, police officers arbitrarily detained journalist Irving Guerrero Montes, former correspondent for Radio Corporación and Canal 23, at his home in the El Sagrario neighbourhood of León, western Nicaragua. Authorities accused Guerrero of alleged “illegal possession of weapons”. His detention was briefly reported by the pro-government outlet Radio Venceremos, before the post was swiftly removed from social media.

According to Libertad de Prensa Nicaragua, Guerrero’s detention forms part of the administration’s ongoing reprisals against the independent media. The organisation condemned his detention as politically motivated and urged authorities to release all journalists held in custody.

Restrictions on independent journalism

Between October 2024 and March 2025, the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED) recorded incidents affecting independent journalists and media workers, including arbitrary detentions, forced displacement, censorship, and internet restrictions. By March 2025, four journalists remained under detention, two of them elderly, and the government had provided no judicial guarantees or transparency regarding their conditions of detention.

FLED identified the forced exile of journalists as one of the consequences of the crackdown. By December 2024, 289 journalists had gone into exile since 2018, 46 of them in 2024 alone. Another 77 journalists left the profession due to economic and security pressures, and 28 more did so between October 2024 and March 2025. The organisation noted that these measures often extend to journalists’ families, contributing to psychological distress and long-term social disruption.

FLED reported a deepening campaign of digital censorship targeting media outlets operating from exile. For example, on 14th March 2025, several independent Nicaraguan news outlets reported that their websites using the national “.ni” domain had been blocked. The affected media include Confidencial, La Prensa, 100% Noticias and Onda Local. The domains are administered by the National Engineering University (UNI) through NIC.NI, under government oversight.

By the end of 2024, ten departments lacked independent media coverage, including Carazo, Chontales, Jinotega, Madriz, Nueva Segovia, Granada, Río San Juan, León and the Caribbean regions. In these areas, state media dominate, limiting pluralism and public oversight.

In May 2025, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Nicaragua 172nd out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index, placing it as the lowest-ranked country in Latin America, below Cuba (165). RSF described Nicaragua as a country where there is no room for journalism, citing the near-total eradication of independent media, the revocation of journalists’ nationality, and widespread forced exile.