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At least 60 Nicaraguans have been taken by the National Police, the repressive arm of the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo dictatorship, as of 9 January 2026. The new wave of repression in the country occurred after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by United States forces and after Rosario Murillo ordered a “state of alert” and increased surveillance in neighborhoods and on social media.
The organization Monitoreo Azul y Blanco, a civil network that has monitored human rights violations in Nicaragua since 2018, reported that the arbitrary detentions have taken place in at least eight departments of the country: Chontales, Matagalpa, Managua, Jinotega, Chinandega, Estelí, Granada, Masaya, and the North and South Caribbean regions.
“These detentions, carried out without a judicial order and based solely on expressions of opinion, constitute a serious violation of fundamental human rights,” Monitoreo Azul y Blanco said.
Collective and individual detentions
The detentions carried out by the regime’s repressive arm took place amid the “state of alert” ordered by Murillo for all territorial structures of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, after an “encerrona” that was carried out on the afternoon of 3 January 2026 in El Carmen without Daniel Ortega’s presence, sources linked to the FSLN Secretariat confirmed to CONFIDENCIAL.
According to Monitoreo Azul y Blanco’s report, of the total number of people taken by the Ortega police, 49 remain detained “without information about their legal situation,” while nine have been released after being arrested and three have been subject to temporary detentions, without clear charges or access to transparent judicial proceedings.
The organization also documented 18 incidents, including nine collective detentions and six individual ones.
“We urgently call on the international community to pay attention to this new wave of repression in Nicaragua. The arbitrary detentions, carried out without a judicial order and based solely on expressions of opinion, constitute a serious violation of fundamental human rights,” the organization said.
After Maduro’s capture, at a meeting attended by the head of the National Police, Francisco Díaz, “co‑president” Murillo ordered surveillance of “radical opposition elements,” “those deported from the United States,” and any “formation of groups that disturb our peace.”
The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights expressed in a statement its “concern” about the “surveillance in neighborhoods and social networks,” and asked the international community “to monitor the situation and demand that no one be subject to persecution or reprisals for expressing their stance on events of public interest.”
U.S. advocates for political prisoners in Nicaragua
After the release in Venezuela of a “significant number” of political prisoners, ordered by the acting president Delcy Rodríguez and seen as a first gesture of openness in response to pressure from the United States, the U.S. Embassy in Managua reminded that in Nicaragua there are still “more than 60 people” who remain “unjustly detained or missing.”
“Venezuela took an important step toward peace by freeing a large number of political prisoners. In Nicaragua, more than 60 people remain unjustly detained or missing, including pastors, religious workers, the sick, and the elderly. Peace is only possible with freedom!” the embassy said in a message on X.
According to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners, as of 2 December 2025 there were 62 people counted as detained for political reasons in the country, while patterns of forced disappearance, harassment and underreporting of cases persist.
Monitoreo Azul y Blanco called for the freedom of all prisoners of conscience and warned that amid this new wave of repression by the Ortega regime it continues “verifying cases and tracking all people deprived of liberty for political reasons.”
