UN: Nicaragua Expands Repression Abroad, Targets Exiles With Statelessness

The UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua has issued a damning new report accusing the Government of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo of extending its campaign of repression beyond national borders. According to the experts, Nicaraguan authorities are systematically targeting critics in exile through nationality deprivation, denial of documents, intimidation, surveillance, and reprisals against family members.

The findings were presented at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, where experts warned that the Ortega-Murillo administration has turned exile into a form of punishment designed to dismantle the lives of its opponents, even outside Nicaragua.

A Systematic Attack on Exiles

Jan-Michael Simon, Chair of the Expert Group, described the situation as a comprehensive assault on identity and survival:

“The harm exiled Nicaraguans suffer is not the result of a discrete event or a single violation. Their entire life is systematically dismantled, beginning with their uprooting and erosion of legal identity, cascading into economic collapse, social isolation, and pervasive surveillance.”

The report documents how:

• 452 individuals were stripped of nationality by court orders between February 2023 and September 2024; only one remains inside Nicaragua.

• Others have been arbitrarily deprived of citizenship without legal process.

• Many abroad have been denied passport renewals or official documents, rendering them effectively stateless and unable to rebuild their lives.

• Exiles face confiscation of property, digital surveillance, and threats to family members left behind.

Violence Against Exiles

The repression has also taken a violent turn. The Experts highlighted the June 2025 murder of retired army major Roberto Samcam in Costa Rica, a prominent critic of the government who had been stripped of his nationality in 2023. While no direct link has yet been established to Nicaraguan authorities, the case is the fourth violent attack against Nicaraguan exiles in recent years.

Reed Brody, a member of the Expert Group, described the atmosphere of fear:

“A climate of fear has spread through the Nicaraguan diaspora, as no place in the world seems safe for those who oppose Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. An invisible hand follows exiles everywhere—denying passports, threatening them and their families, cutting them off from their homeland.”

Human Rights Deterioration Inside Nicaragua

The report also warns of worsening conditions within Nicaragua itself. Authorities have intensified mass arrests and prolonged incommunicado detention, with dozens of cases amounting to enforced disappearances.

Two recent deaths in custody occurred under such conditions, raising alarm over torture and the brutality of prison environments.

Ariela Peralta, another Expert, stressed:

“When people are detained in secret, tortured, and, in some cases, die under State custody, state responsibility is incurred under international law. This points to a deliberate policy of terror that must be confronted with urgency.”

Withdrawal From International Oversight

The Ortega-Murillo government has increasingly turned its back on international scrutiny, even going so far as to withdraw from international organizations, including the UN Human Rights Council itself.

The Experts said this move was part of a deliberate strategy to consolidate impunity, insulating the government from accountability while escalating repression.

Calls for Accountability and Protection

The Group urged the international community to take stronger action:

• States should hold Nicaragua accountable before the International Court of Justice for violating the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

• Countries hosting exiles should adopt measures to strengthen protection, including facilitating asylum, refugee status, or naturalization.

• International bodies must maintain scrutiny despite Nicaragua’s withdrawals, ensuring that victims of repression are not abandoned.

A Growing Diaspora Under Threat

Since the brutal crackdown on protests in 2018, thousands of Nicaraguans have fled to Costa Rica, the United States, Spain, and other countries. The new UN findings confirm that even abroad, exiles are not safe from the reach of the state.

The report paints a picture of a government determined not only to silence critics within its borders but also to pursue them globally, stripping them of nationality, property, and rights in what the Experts call a “policy of terror without borders.”