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One Year After the Murder of Roberto Samcam: Moving Towards Justice Requires Clarifying the Entire Chain of Responsibilities and Strengthening the Protection of Nicaraguan Opponents in exile

Washington, D.C., June 19, 2026.– On the one-year anniversary of the murder of retired Nicaraguan Army major and Nicaraguan dissident Roberto Samcam, the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) honors his memory and reiterates our call for this crime to be fully clarified and punished.

The murder of Samcam, perpetrated on June 19, 2025, in San José, Costa Rica, cannot be understood as an isolated event. His death occurred in a context of systematic persecution against critical voices of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, inside and outside Nicaragua. The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) has documented that this repressive policy transcends national borders through transnational repression practices carried out against exiles and opponents.

In its investigations, the mechanism has identified the participation of state and parastatal structures, as well as operators who coordinate surveillance, intimidation, threats, and reprisals from Nicaragua. The murder of Roberto Samcam takes place in this worrying context, which continues to put at risk the life, integrity and security of Nicaraguans in opposition or considered as such by the Ortega-Murillo regime, who live in exile.

A year after the events, we recognize as a significant advance the decision of the Costa Rican Prosecutor’s Office to present a formal accusation against the people suspected of the murder and request the opening of a trial. This step demonstrates the importance of diligent investigations and the commitment of the authorities to combat impunity in cases involving human rights defenders, political opponents, and exiles. However, the search for justice does not end with the prosecution of the alleged perpetrators.

As Roberto Samcam’s own family has pointed out, truth and justice require the identification and punishment of all those responsible, including those who planned, ordered or facilitated the commission of the crime. The determination of the entire chain of responsibility is essential for Roberto Samcam’s family to receive the justice they deserve, to avoid the repetition of similar events and to guarantee effective protection to Nicaraguans in exile who continue to be persecuted for political reasons in the countries where they sought refuge.

For this reason, we reiterate our call on the Costa Rican authorities to continue advancing in the investigations until all lines of investigation are exhausted and the facts are fully clarified. We also urge States hosting Nicaraguan exiles to strengthen protection mechanisms against the risks associated with transnational persecution.

The international community also cannot ignore the accumulated evidence on the expansion of the repressive practices of the Ortega-Murillo regime outside Nicaragua’s borders. Threats from transnational repression continue to endanger the lives, security and exercise of fundamental rights of those who have sought refuge in other countries. Ensuring the safety of exiles is an urgent obligation and an indispensable component of any effort towards truth, justice and non-repetition.

Today we remember Roberto Samcam, his commitment to democracy and his firm denunciation of human rights violations in Nicaragua. Honoring his memory also implies redoubling efforts so that this crime does not go unpunished and so that no Nicaraguan person is ever persecuted, threatened or killed again for exercising their fundamental rights.

Race and Equality holds the Ortega-Murillo regime responsible for the death of Ta Upla Brooklyn Rivera after more than 970 days of enforced disappearance

Washington, D.C., May 31, 2026 – Race and Equality strongly condemns the death of indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera, a defender of the rights of indigenous peoples and a Ta Upla of the Miskitu people, and holds the Ortega-Murillo regime directly responsible for the grave human rights violations committed against him, including his arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, prolonged incommunicado detention, the progressive deterioration of his health and his death while in custody of the Nicaraguan State.

Rivera’s death cannot be understood as an isolated incident or as the inevitable outcome of a medical condition. It is the result of more than 970 days of arbitrary deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearance, and conditions of detention incompatible with human dignity, while he remained under the absolute control of the Nicaraguan authorities.

Arbitrarily detained in September 2023, Brooklyn Rivera remained missing for long periods of time, without his family, his lawyers, or Nicaraguan society being able to independently ensure his accurate situation. Throughout this time, human rights organizations, international mechanisms, indigenous leaders, and members of the international community demanded information on his whereabouts, guarantees for his physical and psychological well-being, access to adequate medical care, and his immediate release. The regime systematically ignored these calls.

On May 27, 2026, the authorities publicly displayed Brooklyn Rivera in critical health. The images released showed severe physical deterioration. The official report itself acknowledged that he was suffering from severe lung infections, bilateral pleural effusion, and multiple organ failure, and that he depended on mechanical ventilation and intravenous feeding to survive. Just three days later, news of his death broke.

The severity of his condition did not arise suddenly. It was the consequence of years of confinement in conditions contrary to human dignity and the State’s refusal to fully guarantee the rights of a person in its custody.

Brooklyn Rivera dedicated his life to defending the rights of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples of Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast. His imprisonment, enforced disappearance, and death also represent an attack on indigenous leadership and on those who continue to defend human rights, territorial autonomy, and fundamental freedoms in Nicaragua.

Race and Equality maintains that Brooklyn Rivera’s death must be incorporated into the efforts toward documentation, memory, truth, justice, and accountability led by victims, civil society, and international human rights mechanisms. Those responsible for the violations committed against him must be held accountable for their actions.

Likewise, we demand that the authorities immediately return his body to his family and fully respect their right to say goodbye to him and give him a dignified burial in accordance with his wishes, traditions, and beliefs, without surveillance, restrictions, intimidation, or harassment.

“Brooklyn Rivera’s death represents an irreparable loss for the Miskitu people and for the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua. For decades, he dedicated his life to defending collective rights, autonomy, and Indigenous territories. His death after more than 900 days of detention and enforced disappearance while in state custody is an extremely serious matter that cannot go unpunished,” stated Carlos Quesada, executive director of Race and Equality.

We at Race and Equality express our solidarity with his family, with the Miskitu people, and with all those who have demanded his freedom over the years.

Eight years after the beginning of the crisis in Nicaragua: a reality that persists and demands sustained action

Washington, D.C., April 17, 2026.– Eight years after the beginning of the human rights crisis in Nicaragua, from the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) we reiterate that this is not a memory that can erase time: it is a reality that has been transformed, deepened and that continues to affect the lives of thousands of people inside and outside the country.

Since April 2018, the country has gone through a sustained process of repression that has evolved over time. What began as a violent response to social protests has been consolidated into a system of control that restricts fundamental freedoms, punishes dissent and has completely closed civic space.

At Race and Equality we have been following this crisis since its inception, carrying out documentation actions aimed at strategic litigation before the Inter-American and Universal Human Rights Systems, as well as advocacy before diplomatic delegations and international human rights mechanisms. And today, we ask ourselves: What do these eight years mean?

They mean eight years of political persecution and continuous repression, in which visible violence has been replaced by more sophisticated mechanisms of surveillance and control. Eight years of imposed silence, where exercising freedom of expression implies real risks of criminalization and imprisonment. Eight years of exile and forced exile, which have fractured entire families and communities. Eight years of impunity, in which the victims of serious human rights violations continue to wait for truth, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.

In this period, the political persecution of the dictatorship has expanded beyond Nicaragua’s borders, affecting human rights defenders, journalists, and activists in exile through acts of transnational repression. Added to this are the continuous attacks against Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendants, restrictions on religious freedom and the systematic closure of civil society organizations and restrictions incompatible with freedom of association.

The situation in Nicaragua continues to be addressed in different international forums; however, the challenge remains to sustain attention and response commensurate with the severity and prolongation of the crisis. The risk, in this context, is that its continuity will contribute to a dangerous normalization if efforts to ensure accountability to a regime that has committed – and continues to commit – crimes against humanity against its own people are not consolidated.

We believe that despite these challenges, the persistence of Nicaraguan civil society, inside and outside the country, as well as the sustained work of international human rights mechanisms, demonstrate that this crisis continues to be documented, denounced and accompanied. These efforts are critical and must continue.

In this context, Race and Equality makes an urgent call to the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations, as well as other actors in the international community, to maintain and strengthen attention on Nicaragua and to adopt concrete and sustained actions that contribute to accountability. in application of the collective guarantee of human rights, ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

In particular, we urge:

Promote firm resolutions within the framework of the OAS that recognize the persistence of serious human rights violations and demand concrete actions from the Nicaraguan State.
Strengthen and support international monitoring and investigation mechanisms, including the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and other independent mechanisms, guaranteeing the necessary resources for their continuity.
Adopt measures of diplomatic pressure and targeted individual sanctions, targeting those responsible for serious human rights violations, in accordance with international law.
Strengthen the protection of Nicaraguans in exile, including guarantees of non-refoulement, access to specific international protection mechanisms, and recognition of their status at risk.
Advance actions of international accountability, including the referral of Nicaragua to the International Court of Justice for violations of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the Convention against Torture.
Maintain Nicaragua as a priority on the international agenda, avoiding its displacement by other global crises that also require attention.
Recognize, investigate, prosecute, and punish acts of transnational repression committed against Nicaraguans in exile, guaranteeing their protection and effective access to justice.

We also urge international human rights protection mechanisms to maintain and strengthen active monitoring of the situation, as well as to continue creating spaces that make the voices of victims and Nicaraguan civil society visible.

Eight years after the beginning of the crisis, Nicaragua cannot be treated as just another case. The persistence of grave and systematic violations requires proportionate, coordinated and effective responses on the part of the international community.

On this anniversary we remember all the victims of repression, we denounce that the crisis continues and we express our firm conviction that sustained actions can make a difference.

Eight years later, silence is not an option. Because the prolonged crisis that Nicaragua is experiencing and a sector of the population persecuted locally and even beyond its borders continues to claim victims, and therefore, it must be confronted with decisive and sustained actions that lead Nicaragua to regain its freedom.

Activists from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela denounce transnational repression in exile before the IACHR

Guatemala City, March 16, 2025. Transnational repression carried out by the dictatorships of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela is a reality. This became evident during the regional hearing “Situation of Transnational Repression,” held last Thursday, March 12, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Guatemala City, within the framework of the 195th session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), Cubalex, the Association for Legal Defense, Registry and Memory for Nicaragua, the World Organisation Against Torture, and the Virtual Museum Against Gender-Based Violence in Cuba participated in this space for dialogue, accompanying three activists from these countries who have faced acts of transnational repression in exile: Cuban activist Kirenia Yalit Núñez, director of the Cuban Youth Dialogue Table; Nicaraguan activist Claudia Vargas, widow of activist Roberto Samcam and member of the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress; and Venezuelan activist Luis Peche, director of the organization Sala 58.

During the hearing, they denounced murders, attempted homicides, persecution, and harassment in the countries where they have sought refuge after being forced into exile due to repression by the authoritarian regimes in their countries of origin.

Claudia Vargas warned that the Nicaraguan regime continues to persecute opposition figures even outside its territory. “The regime’s persecution does not end when we cross the border. On the contrary, it transforms, expands, and reaches us even where we seek refuge,” she said. She also denounced the arbitrary deprivation of nationality affecting more than 450 people, which has resulted in the annulment of documents, academic records, pensions, and property.

She also recalled that at least five murders of Nicaraguan opposition figures in exile have already been documented, including the killing of campesino leader Jaime Luis Ortega in Costa Rica in 2024 and that of her husband, Roberto Samcam, a former major in the Nicaraguan Army and political analyst who was murdered in San José in June 2025. “His assassination represented a message directed at the exile community: an attempt to silence us and a demonstration of power beyond borders,” she stated.

“In the face of this serious problem, it is urgent that states in the region, especially host countries, recognize the fight against this form of persecution as part of their international protection obligations,” Vargas added.

For his part, Luis Peche explained that he was forced to leave Venezuela in 2025 following the increase in political persecution after the electoral process. The activist reported that he was the victim of an assassination attempt in Bogotá in October last year, when armed men opened fire on him and on human rights defender Yendri Velásquez. Peche received six gunshot wounds and Velásquez eight. Both survived the attack and are currently out of danger. “This fear is not abstract; it is concrete and persistent. It is part of a regional pattern of transnational repression that seeks to silence those of us who denounce these abuses,” he said.

From Cuba, Kirenia Yalit Núñez denounced that the Cuban regime has developed mechanisms of extraterritorial persecution against activists and journalists in exile. She recounted that she has faced numerous incidents of harassment in different countries, including acts of intimidation, surveillance, and migration-related obstacles. “The Cuban regime projects its intimidation beyond its borders to silence those of us who continue to denounce human rights violations from exile,” she said.

During the hearing, Cuban lawyer Laritza Diversent, director of the organization Cubalex, also participated. She warned that transnational repression seeks to silence critical voices even outside their countries of origin. Diversent urged the IACHR to recognize and systematically monitor this phenomenon, strengthen protection mechanisms for exiled individuals—especially in host countries such as Costa Rica, Colombia, and the United States—and promote coordinated regional responses to the extraterritorial expansion of political persecution.

She also called on the Commission, as it has done in other countries in the region, to establish a specific mechanism to monitor the humanitarian crisis and serious human rights violations in Cuba, in order to document these patterns and strengthen international accountability mechanisms.

During the hearing, the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) and the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela participated jointly for the first time. These bodies noted that transnational repression is a real phenomenon affecting opposition figures and human rights defenders from Nicaragua and Venezuela, and emphasized the importance of continuing to investigate and document these patterns of persecution beyond national borders.

Race and Equality will continue to monitor and denounce the human rights violations suffered by activists and defenders from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. We reiterate the need for states in the region to strengthen protection measures for exiled individuals and to ensure effective investigations into acts of transnational persecution, as well as coordinated regional responses to this phenomenon.

Three years since the release and exile of 222 Nicaraguans: memory, dignity, and justice pending

Washington, D.C February 9, 2026.– This February 9 marks three years since the release of 222 Nicaraguans who were arbitrarily deprived of their liberty for political reasons and who, after their release from prison, were forced into exile by the Ortega-Murillo regime. Their arrival in Washington, D.C., was made possible thanks to diplomatic and humanitarian efforts by the United States government, which facilitated their reception under conditions of protection.

Race and Equality was invited by the US State Department to provide technical support for this process, alongside civil society organizations and government institutions, offering immediate assistance to ensure dignified reception conditions, including accommodation, clothing, telephones, psychosocial support, and basic resources for their first days in the country.

Our team was able to witness first hand the serious physical, psychological and social impacts of political imprisonment, resulting from conditions of detention that included prolonged solitary confinement, cruel treatment, torture, and deprivation incompatible with human dignity. The documentation of these events helped to highlight patterns of repression that were later included in the Race and Equality report Patterns of Repression and Political Persecution in Nicaragua: From Prison to Freedom after Operation Guardabarranco.

Their release from prison did not mean justice. The regime not only expelled these 222 people from their country, but also arbitrarily stripped them of their nationality and legal existence in Nicaragua, constituting elements of crimes against humanity, as pointed out by the Group of Experts on Human Rights in Nicaragua. In their host countries, many of these people continue to face challenges related to their immigration status, access to employment, health care, family reunification, and integration, compounded by the risk of transnational repression.

Three years later, impunity persists. The serious human rights violations committed against these 222 people remain uninvestigated and unpunished, even though many of them have been granted provisional measures by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which the State of Nicaragua has failed to comply with.

At the same time, the human rights crisis in Nicaragua continues to deepen. Almost eight years after the repression of April 2018, persecution, surveillance, and arbitrary detentions persist. The regime has attempted to cover up this pattern through releases from prison under restrictive conditions, threats, and controls that do not amount to freedom, but rather reproduce mechanisms of intimidation and punishment.

Remembering this anniversary also means recognizing that the release of these 222 people was not a gesture, but the result of international pressure and coordination. Solidarity and coordinated action can save lives, but the repression is not over.

In this context, Race and Equality calls on host countries to continue facilitating the full reintegration and protection of victims of arbitrary imprisonment for political reasons in Nicaragua, as well as to maintain international vigilance in the face of ongoing crimes.

We reiterate our commitment to the victims of arbitrary imprisonment, denationalization, and all forms of repression in Nicaragua. We will continue to document, litigate, and advocate so that those responsible are held accountable and victims have access to truth, justice, and reparation.

We will continue working so that one day, not too far in the future, the political imprisonment and denationalization implemented by the Ortega-Murillo regime and its accomplices will be a bad memory of a dictatorship that, like all dictatorships, will come to an end due to the Nicaraguan people’s desire for freedom.

The release of 222 people was one step. Justice for all victims remains a pending debt.

Nicaragua: No Release Measure Will Be Enough as Long as the Ortega-Murillo Regime Keeps Its Repressive Structure Intact

Washington, D.C., December 3, 2025.– The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) expresses its satisfaction to learn that recently, the Ortega-Murillo regime has released people who were arbitrarily deprived of their liberty for political reasons. After months of unjust imprisonment, inhumane conditions, ill-treatment and isolation, we are comforted to know that these people will be able to reunite with their families and have better conditions for their care and attention.

So far, the authorities have not issued an official statement on these releases, but independent media and civil society organizations indicate that at least 12 people – including seven women – were released between Saturday, November 29 and Monday, December 1. In addition, at the beginning of the month, the release of three other people was announced.

According to this information, the releases have been registered as follows: on November 8, Leo Catalino Cárcamo Herrera, Julio Antonio Quintana Carvajal and Fabio Alberto Cáceres Larios, all older adults, were released. Subsequently, on November 29, it was learned about the release of at least eight people, including Carmen Sáenz, Lesbia Gutiérrez, Evelyn Guillén, Alejandro Hurtado Díaz, Eliseo Castro Baltodano, Evelyn Matus Hernández, Valmore Valladares and Mauricio Chavarría. Finally, on Monday, December 1, the release of Yolanda González Escobar, Carlos Vanegas, Luis Francisco Ortiz Calero and Octavio Enrique Caldera was reported.

According to the information available, as on other occasions, no indigenous leader has been released.

It should be noted that as of October 29, 2025, the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners put the list of people deprived of liberty for political reasons at 77. We regret the regime’s lack of transparency since it does not report on arrests or on releases or changes in measures, which is due to its strategy to try to evade international scrutiny and responsibilities for the crimes committed.

We Demand Real Freedom

From Race and Equality we warn that these releases do not mean real freedom. The deprivation of liberty for political reasons in Nicaragua is not limited to being inside a physical prison: the repressive pattern of the regime can impose measures that continue to restrict fundamental rights, including: house arrest, constant surveillance, the obligation to report daily, threats, police harassment and the impossibility of exercising civil and political rights. The closure of civic space makes it impossible to freely exercise freedom of expression due to the certainty that reprisals will be taken. These practices constitute widespread forms of repression and social control that keep victims in a permanent state of risk and persecution.

We urgently call on the Nicaraguan State to immediately release all people arbitrarily detained for political reasons and to cease all forms of criminalization, harassment and reprisals against opponents, human rights defenders, journalists, territorial leaders and critical voices. We also urge the international community to continue to closely monitor the situation and to redouble efforts to demand the full, unconditional and guaranteed release of all persons deprived of liberty for political reasons in the country and for those who continue to be in a situation of enforced disappearance.

Race and Equality reaffirms its commitment to the victims, their families, and civil society organizations that continue to document and denounce human rights violations in Nicaragua, and reiterates that no measure of release will be sufficient as long as the regime maintains its repressive structure intact.

We denounce the dismantling of a fence in Santa Marta that demanded freedom for political prisoners in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela

Santa Marta, November 8, 2025 — Race and Equality denounces the censorship exercised by the local authorities of Santa Marta, who on Friday, November 7, ordered the removal of a billboard installed by our organization outside Simón Bolívar International Airport. The billboard demanded the release of political prisoners in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, in the context of the IV CELAC-EU Summit.

The billboard bore the message: “Every person imprisoned for defending human rights in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela represents a broken promise of democracy. How long will this continue?”

Accompanied by the image of an imprisoned man and the flags of the three countries, the billboard sought to remind representatives of the member states of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU) meeting in Santa Marta of the urgent need to address the lack of democracy in the region. However, it was dismantled in less than 24 hours by order of the Mayor’s Office of Santa Marta, in compliance with supposed guidelines prohibiting the display of messages “of political content” during the summit.

This decision violates our right to freedom of expression and limits the possibility of denouncing human rights violations in these three countries, precisely in a space that presents itself as a forum for dialogue on democracy, cooperation, and human rights.

In 2023, a similar incident occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when, on the eve of the CELAC Summit, a billboard installed by our organization demanding the restoration of democracy in Cuba and Nicaragua was also removed.

The IV CELAC-EU Summit, held from November 7 to 10 in Santa Marta, addresses key issues such as the triple transition (energy, digital, and environmental), gender equality, food security, and the strengthening of bi-regional cooperation. All this is happening while Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela continue to be marked by repression and the imprisonment of those who defend human rights.

Until the end of October 2025 alone, civil society organizations had documented 749 political prisoners in Cuba (according to Justicia 11J), 77 in Nicaragua (Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners), and 875 in Venezuela (Foro Penal). These figures reflect the magnitude of the closure of democratic spaces and the persistence of serious human rights violations.

Similarly, in a recent resolution on the Union’s political strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean, the European Parliament reaffirmed the importance of bi-regional cooperation and condemned the weakening of democracy in these three countries, which it described as some of the most authoritarian regimes in the world.

At Race and Equality, we denounce this censorship and reaffirm our commitment to freedom of expression, justice, and democracy. We will continue to call on the international community to denounce human rights violations in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and to ensure the restoration of democracy in these countries.

Nicaragua: Raids Carried Out by the Ortega-Murillo Regime Reveal New Escalation of Repression

Washington, D.C., August 18, 2025. – The Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race and Equality) strongly condemns the recent police raids carried out by the Ortega-Murillo regime in the departments of Carazo, Granada, Masaya, and Rivas, which left at least 27 people detained between August 14 and 16. as denounced and documented by the Blue and White Monitoring (MAB). Four of those people have reportedly been released and 23 remain arbitrarily detained for political reasons.

Most of those arrested are political releases, returned exiles, artists and opposition businessmen. The operations were marked by violent raids, looting, use of canine technique and night detentions, in a context marked by the recent confiscation of the San José School in Jinotepe, Carazo.

According to the MAB report, among those arrested in Carazo in this new offensive are the former political prisoner and returned exile Óscar Velásquez Sánchez, the painter Marvin Campos Chavarría, María José Rojas Arburola, daughter of the assassinated opponent Rodolfo Rojas; Chester Cortés, from the Cementerio neighborhood; tattoo artist Darwin Ayerdis – missing since his capture in July – as well as Mario Rodríguez Serrano and Halder López Luna, the latter arrested after voluntarily presenting himself to the police.

The arrests occurred days after co-dictator Rosario Murillo announced on August 12 the confiscation of the San José school, in Jinotepe, under the alleged argument that torture was carried out in that center during April 2018. The confiscated school was administered by the nuns of the Josephine congregation, which represents another step in the regime’s onslaught against the Catholic Church.

It is with deep concern that the regime does not abandon the pattern of arbitrary detentions for political reasons in order to keep the population afraid to express themselves.

“It is unacceptable that in Nicaragua the practice of detaining people and subjecting them to forced disappearance persists, leaving their families in absolute uncertainty and pain. No one should live in fear of never seeing their loved ones again. This is a very serious violation of human rights that must cease immediately,” said Carlos Quesada, Executive Director of Race and Equality.

We demand that the families of the affected people be informed of their whereabouts and that they be released immediately. We also demand that the repression against the Nicaraguan Church cease and that religious freedom and the properties and educational centers owned or administered by the Church be respected.

Nicaragua: Persecution of people perceived as opponents has become a recurrent practice and can transcend beyond its borders

Washington, D.C., June 27, 2025.– The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out that the persecution of the Government of Nicaragua against people perceived as opponents “has become a recurrent practice and can transcend beyond its borders,” which represents a high risk to the life and physical integrity of people in exile.

This information corresponds to the oral update on the human rights situation in Nicaragua, carried out this Friday, June 27, in the framework of the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council and in accordance with Resolution 58/18 of that body. It was presented by the director of the Global Operations Division of the Office, Maarit Kohonen.

Kohonen said that the persecution of people perceived as political opponents in Nicaragua includes human rights defenders, journalists, indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, religious and secular leaders, and that this situation “is exacerbated by legislative changes that reinforce the closure of civic space and increase restrictions on political participation.”

Arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances

The report indicates that arbitrary detentions continue to be used as a tool of political repression, consolidating a climate of fear to silence any critical voice, and that, according to information gathered by the Office, at least 54 people (47 men and 7 women) remain arbitrarily detained. “The real figure could be higher as many families are afraid to report for fear of reprisals,” he said.

Additionally, the Office has documented 13 cases of possible forced disappearance, of which 8 correspond to older adults and 2 to indigenous persons. Of these cases, they highlighted Evelyn Carolina Matus Hernández’s, whose whereabouts have been unknown since she was arbitrarily detained on June 25, 2024, and separated from her 5 and 10 year old children.

“Detention conditions continue to be worrying, with reports of torture and insufficient food. Of the 54 people detained 15 are elderly people with urgent medical needs without adequate care. Of particular concern is the case of Aníbal Martín Rivas Reed, 62, who suffers from degenerative arthritis and clinical depression and whose whereabouts have been unknown since his arrest last May,” he added.

In relation to the situation of the independent press, the office reported that at least 168 journalists have had to go into exile since 2018 while those who remain in the country face surveillance, threats and censorship, highlighting the case of journalist Leo Cárcamo, who was arbitrarily detained in November 2024 and since then his whereabouts remain unknown, which could constitute an enforced disappearance.

In the oral update, the Office reiterated its call on the Nicaraguan authorities to immediately release all arbitrarily detained persons, to cease enforced disappearances and torture, and to ensure respect for international standards on dignified treatment in places of detention.

Legislative reforms

The High Commissioner’s report referred to the reforms to the Electoral Law approved last March, noting that they deepen the concentration of power in the Presidency and further weaken the guarantees of democratic participation, by eliminating the mechanisms of referendum and plebiscite and authorizing proselytism in public offices, as well as limiting the constitution and integration of political parties.

“These reforms together with the constitutional reforms adopted in January 2025 raise serious doubts about the existence, independent functioning of political parties, in addition there is uncertainty about the dates of the next presidential elections,” he said.

He also referred to the new organic law of the Judiciary, in that it grants the Presidency of the Republic the power to propose the presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) and allows the restriction of the publicity of criminal proceedings at the discretion of the judicial authority.

“Recently enacted legislation has further weakened protections for indigenous peoples’ and Afro-descendant peoples’ territories and their forms of governance; These reforms have been adopted without due guarantees of the right to consultation and free, prior and informed consent. This, coupled with ongoing attacks against communities that include killings, sexual violence, and arbitrary detention of leaders, poses a serious threat to the survival of Nicaraguan indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples,” he added.

The report also denounced that the number of non-governmental or civil society organizations that have been arbitrarily terminated has now reached 5,535 and that this year the Office has documented 29 cases (17 women and 12 men) of people who were denied entry to their own country for political reasons.

Isolation of Nicaragua

The Nicaraguan representation was absent from the session and, therefore, did not respond to the complaints and demands raised. The Office of the High Commissioner, for its part, noted that despite the urgent need to address the human rights crisis, Nicaragua continues to isolate itself from cooperation with international organizations, notifying its withdrawal from UNESCO in May and from UNHCR in June.

“We once again call on the Nicaraguan authorities to resume dialogue to guarantee the promotion and protection of human rights in the country, including the conclusion of the Universal Periodic Review,” they said.

From Race and Equality, we reject the resistance of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to be accountable before the Human Rights Council and warn that both the bodies of the universal system of protection of human rights and civil society organizations must continue to demand that the State be held accountable and that the victims receive justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition that they deserve. Turning our backs on international obligations and protection bodies will not provide them with the impunity they seek.

We share the concern of the Office of the High Commissioner about the persistence and worsening of politically motivated persecution and other forms of repression against people perceived as opponents, and we therefore call on the international community to maintain vigilance over the human rights situation in the country and beyond its borders regarding exiles.

We demand that the regime report on the whereabouts of all disappeared persons, as well as the immediate release of all those imprisoned for political reasons.

The international community must act to protect Nicaraguan opposition figures exiled in Costa Rica

Geneva, June 24. The Colectivo 46/2 denounces before the international community the murder of retired Nicaraguan Army Major Roberto Samcam Ruíz, which took place on June 19 at his home in San José, Costa Rica.

Samcam Ruíz was a strong critical voice against the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship. He denounced the Nicaraguan army and accused it of participating in the repression and extrajudicial executions committed since 2018. He had also denounced a network of spies targeting opposition members who had sought refuge in Costa Rica.

The retired Major was one of 94 Nicaraguans stripped of their nationality in February 2023 by the dictatorship and had been living as a refugee in Costa Rica since July 11, 2018, due to persecution and criminalization by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. He obtained Spanish nationality on July 26, 2023.

The murder of the retired military officer is not the first attack against opponents on Costa Rican soil. In 2023, opposition figure Joao Maldonado and his wife were shot with the clear intention of killing them. Maldonado had already suffered another attack in 2021, also in San José, Costa Rica. In 2022, Nicaraguan opposition figure Rodolfo Rojas was found dead in Honduras. According to family members, he had been lured to that country from Costa Rica, where he had been living in exile. Added to the list is the murder of another refugee, Jaime Luis Ortega, in 2024, in Upala, a town on the border with Nicaragua. In the wake of these events, Roberto Samcam had spoken to the press, pointing to the direct involvement of the Ortega Murillo regime and indicating that he knew his life was in danger.

While investigations into Samcam’s murder are ongoing, the circumstances of the crime and the profile of the victim raise well-founded suspicions that this may be a political crime with possible transnational links. This murder comes at a time when various human rights organizations have been documenting a sustained pattern of surveillance, threats, harassment, and acts of intimidation against Nicaraguan exiles in the region, especially in Costa Rica.

We believe that this crime should be analyzed and investigated as part of a broader strategy of transnational repression promoted by the Nicaraguan regime to persecute and silence dissent outside its borders, in open violation of the human rights of refugees and exiles. This transnational repression has been documented by the Group of Experts on Human Rights in Nicaragua (GHREN), which has stated that “The government’s repressive actions transcend the country’s borders and affect opponents or those perceived as such abroad. The government has also continued to attack relatives of opponents inside Nicaragua, including children, by association alone, as a way of punishing opponents and/or deterring them from speaking out wherever they are.”

Given the gravity of this crime and the sustained pattern of transnational repression against Nicaraguan exiles, we urgently call on the international community to demand that the Nicaraguan State immediately cease all forms of persecution, surveillance, and violence against dissidents in exile. We also request that the international community strengthen its political, technical, and financial support for protection mechanisms for human rights defenders in exile. Likewise, we urge the establishment of bilateral or multilateral communication channels with the host countries of Nicaraguans, in order to assess the security situation and coordinate preventive responses to possible acts of transnational persecution. Finally, we call on international human rights bodies to urgently follow up on these cases as part of a systematic pattern of cross-border repression, and to ensure justice and truth for the victims.

Additional information

Colectivo 46/2 is a coalition of 19 international, regional, and Nicaraguan human rights organizations that regularly informs the international community about the Nicaraguan regime’s failure to fulfill its international human rights obligations. The following is a list of the organizations that are members of the Collective and have decided to publicly endorse this statement:

Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más

Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights

International Service for Human Rights – ISHR

International Network of Human Rights Europe – RIDHE

Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres – MAM

Peace Brigades International – PBI

Unidad de Defensa Jurídica, Registro y Memoria – UDJUDR

Urnas Abiertas

World Organization Against Torture – OMCT

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