Nicaragua’s Sandinista leadership has made clear it has no intention of relinquishing power. In July, Daniel Ortega declared there would be “no more elections” in the country, and on Sept. 1 the Sandinista-dominated National Assembly voted unanimously to adopt a secretive constitutional reform package attempting to solidify the regime’s position.
These so-called reforms come less than two years after the Assembly approved a new constitution in January 2025 that made it possible for Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, to govern as “co-presidents” while subordinating the authority of the legislative and judicial branches below the executive.
The Ortega-Murillo regime has made it effectively impossible for Nicaragua’s political opposition to contest the dictatorship through democratic elections. In power for 19 years, top leaders have crushed the independence of government institutions, captured the economy, closed civic space at home, and chased dissidents abroad.
Pressure from the outside is needed to reestablish a pathway to prosperity and accountability in Nicaragua through support for democracy and institutional reforms. The Treasury Department has sanctioned more than 80 individuals and entities for state violence and corruption, and the State Department has revoked visas or barred entry to more than 2,350 regime officials for human rights violations.
The United States and the Western Hemispheric community should push back on measures in the constitutional reforms that extend presidential terms, postpone Nicaragua’s next election until late 2028, and ban opposition participation. The blatant moves by Ortega and Murillo to entrench their family in power and protect illicit wealth undermine the freedoms of the Nicaraguan people and pose a danger to regional stability.
A former guerrilla leader who played a major role in the Sandinista National Liberation Front’s 1979 overthrow of the Somoza family dictatorship, Ortega has become the leader of the type of corrupt and repressive family dynasty he once claimed to fight against. Ortega was named president in 1984 until he was voted out of office through democratic elections in 1990. He returned to the presidency by winning elections in 2007 and has manipulated Nicaragua’s democratic institutions and used repression to remain in power.
Since April 2018, when Ortega initiated a violent crackdown on peaceful protestors, more than 800,000 Nicaraguans have fled the regime’s deepening repression, with many seeking refuge in Costa Rica, Spain, and the United States. Hundreds of Nicaraguan citizens have been arbitrarily stripped of their passports, property, and citizenship while traveling abroad, creating effectively stateless individuals that other countries must host.
For several years, the Ortega-Murillo regime expedited irregular migration from around the world to the U.S. southern border by welcoming chartered flights and waiving would-be migrants through its airports without visas or registration.
Widespread repression accelerated again from 2021 onward, leading up to and following national elections in which dozens of opposition candidates were jailed and electoral conditions were manipulated to guarantee a Sandinista victory. The government revoked the registration and seized the assets of more than 5,000 nonprofit organizations, including churches and religious organizations, universities and educational institutions, and international humanitarian groups. Independent media were also forced to close or move operations out of the country.
Nicaragua has become a leading repressor of religious freedoms in the Western Hemisphere, jailing dozens of church leaders and clergy and banning public religious processions. Foreign travelers entering the country aren’t permitted to bring a Bible or other religious materials, even for personal use.
Managua’s repressive apparatus extends far beyond its borders to intimidate, surveil, and even carry out violence against political opposition, freedom advocates, human rights defenders, and journalists living in exile. This transnational repression is financed by corruption and violates the sovereignty of countries where Nicaragua targets individuals for political persecution, including in Central America, Europe, and the United States.
Deliberately choosing self-isolation from the international community of democracies, the Ortega-Murillo regime has also pursued closer relationships with other authoritarian leaders in Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran that seek to expand influence in the Western Hemisphere.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacted to the latest constitutional changes by calling for the Organization of American States (OAS) to take additional measures against Nicaragua’s leadership. The regional body agreed to convene the hemisphere’s foreign ministers to discuss the situation in Nicaragua on Oct. 2.
Anticipating this, among Nicaragua’s constitutional reforms is a measure rejecting the “extraterritorial application of foreign laws,” as well as rulings and resolutions by international organizations and groups of states. For any OAS resolutions to be effective at applying pressure on Managua, the organization’s member states must follow with their own respective bilateral actions.
In August, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate that proposes to renew and expand the sanctioning mandate of a 2018 law called the Nicaragua Investment Conditionality Act (NICA). The proposed bill also directs the secretary of state to publicly report on the conditions necessary for a democratic transition in Nicaragua.
These steps are meaningful but must be backed up by sustained global diplomatic attention and concerted U.S. and regional political will. Only then can the Ortega-Murillo regime be held accountable for its corruption, violence, and repression against the Nicaraguan population.
