GNV News, 31 July 2026

In July 2026, President Daniel Ortega took the podium at a commemorative speech for the 1979 Sandinista Revolution held in Nicaragua. Ortega condemned opposition forces for being backed by foreign governments and Somoza supporters, and declared that no further elections would be held in the country. The Ortega-led congress is currently debating whether to ban opposition parties from running in elections, and has said it will vote on the matter in August. Lawmakers claim this measure is to ensure the continuation of achievements related to peace, security, stability, and poverty eradication. Ortega has also framed it as a new law to build a wall against “external threats,” justifying it as a stance against opposing forces and foreign pressure. In response, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged the Nicaraguan government, in line with its obligations to respect fundamental human rights, to create an environment in which people of all political views can both vote and stand for office.

Ortega, who served as president from 1984 to 1990, returned to the presidency in the 2006 elections. In the 2021 presidential election, after outlawing opposition parties and imprisoning or forcing into exile leading rival candidates, he secured re-election. Furthermore, in February 2025 he elevated his wife, then Vice President Rosario Murillo, to “co-president” and extended the presidential term from five to six years, further postponing any change in leadership and accelerating the concentration of power within his family.

Since the crackdown on protests in 2018, in which more than 300 people were killed, the Ortega–Murillo administration has continued to imprison thousands and forcibly exile around one million people, using a reign of terror to ruthlessly eliminate dissent. Opposition leaders who have fled abroad criticize Ortega for attempting to turn the country into a one-party dictatorship. A former presidential candidate who has experienced imprisonment analyzes the regime’s hard-line measures as reflecting anxiety that it has not fully eradicated the opposition, and points out that Ortega understands he has been unable to completely neutralize opposing forces and that people are still fighting for their country. While political maneuvering and clinging to power plunge the nation into deeper confusion, it is ordinary Nicaraguan citizens who continue to be fundamentally deprived of their basic human rights: the right to vote and to stand for election.

Learn more about Nicaragua → “Nicaragua: Where Has the Hope for Democratization Gone?”

Learn more about politics in Latin America and the Caribbean → “Challenges Facing Politics and Society in Latin America”

Nicaragua (Photo: Fotos Presidencia El Salvador / Wikimedia Commons / [CC0 1.0])