The Authoritarian Shift in Nicaragua: Power Consolidation Under Ortega and Murillo

• The administration of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has effectively eliminated political competition, signaling the end of any democratic transition in Nicaragua.
• A 2025 constitutional reform expanded the presidency, elevated the vice president to co-president, and granted the executive branch control over the legislative and judicial branches.
• Repression against dissenters has intensified since 2018, resulting in the imprisonment, exile, and stripping of nationality for political opponents and indigenous community members.

Privatization of the State and Family Networks

• The Ortega-Murillo family operates the state as a private estate, with relatives occupying key positions in gold mining businesses and forced property seizures.
• In April 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned the couple, their children, and several mining companies due to their involvement in these networks.
• Since 2021, the government has granted over 1.2 million hectares—one-tenth of the national territory—to Chinese mining companies, much of which lies on indigenous and Afro-descendant land.

The Betrayal of the Revolutionary Horizon

• While the regime claims to inherit the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, it reproduces the colonial and patriarchal structures it once claimed to oppose.
• Dissenting Sandinista Monica Baltodano identifies the authoritarian drift as the result of long-term betrayals, including the 1999 pact between Ortega and former liberal President Arnoldo Aleman.
• The regime has sacrificed women's rights to consolidate power, evidenced by the 2006 total ban on therapeutic abortion, implemented to secure alliances with religious hierarchies after Ortega faced sexual abuse allegations by his stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez, in 1998.

Regional Context and Future Outlook

• Nicaragua shares trends with other Central American nations, such as El Salvador, where Nayib Bukele secured indefinite reelection, and Costa Rica, where institutional checks are increasingly under attack.
• The solution requires moving beyond mere procedural democracy to address systemic corruption, the erasure of memory, and the lack of social justice for historically excluded groups.