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Following the purge of workers at the National University of Engineering (UNI) in October 2024, “fear” has gripped hundreds of employees at that institution and at other public universities in Nicaragua, as a “silent sweep” continues and “still seems to have no end,” according to former and current staff from various educational institutions.
“The layoffs have never stopped and are quite unpredictable. In December 2024, right at the end of the year, there was a big sweep across several universities, but the dismissals have continued throughout 2025,” said Ezequiel, a professor at one of the campuses of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN–Managua).
The fear has “spread” after mass and targeted dismissals nationwide, according to staff from multiple universities interviewed by CONFIDENCIAL. Those removed have included rectors, administrative staff, department heads, professors, technicians, and even cleaning personnel.
For Ezequiel, it is “evident” there is “a serious problem” in the management of university staff. “They hire and fire people without any explanation, and if there is a criterion for doing so, it is only known to the top leadership. We’ve even seen high-ranking officials fall who were once thought untouchable,” he said.
“The quality of university education in Nicaragua is getting worse every day, because no institution can provide good service when its staff are threatened daily, and many others have been replaced by people with no training whatsoever,” Ezequiel stressed.
“We Don’t Know Why They Fired Us”
Judith worked in the south of the country at a Regional Multidisciplinary Faculty (FAREM) belonging to UNAN–Managua until she was dismissed in the final months of 2024. She says there was no explanation, but she knows that “more than 20 of us were fired” at that time.
“Our dismissal coincided with a visit from the Office of the Attorney General, which came to carry out audits at the departmental campuses. But we don’t know what happened,” she said.
Judith says it has been hard to leave the job she held for more than twelve years. She now runs a small business of her own. “I always fulfilled the duties of my assigned administrative position, but from one day to the next I was left with nothing, after enduring for so long and even being forced to attend political activities,” she said.
She recalls that when she was dismissed, other people “were transferred to distant university campuses, while some had their positions changed and others were forced into retirement.”
“Now I know they’ve hired new staff in some centers, but most are people with no experience — though loyal to the Sandinista party,” she noted.
She also knows that “a few qualified professionals have been brought in, because there are still some people concerned about the quality of education.”
Sweep: Nine Rectors from Eight Universities
Since late 2023, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has quietly removed rectors, vice-rectors, and general secretaries from eight state universities, according to records from CONFIDENCIAL. Several of them have been sanctioned by the United States for their roles in university repression.
In July 2025, the Sandinista regime inexplicably removed Professor Indiana Coronado González, who had held the position of rector at UNAN-León for seven months. Previously, Almariana Oliveira Solís, who also served as vice president of the National University Council (CNU), had been removed from the same post.
In the “silent sweep,” the chief oppressor of Nicaragua’s universities was also removed: Ramona Rodríguez, president of the National University Council (CNU) and rector of UNAN-Managua. Alongside her, in May 2025, Jaime López Lowery, executive director of the CNU, and three other officials were also dismissed.
Rectors, vice-rectors, and general secretaries from the National University Casimiro Sotelo Montenegro (UNCSM), the National Multidisciplinary University Ricardo Morales Avilés (UNMRMA), and the National University Padre Gaspar García Laviana (UNPGGLV) — all operating on campuses confiscated from other educational institutions — were removed between 2023 and 2024.
The sweep also affected the National Polytechnic University (UNP), located on the confiscated UPOLI campus, where rector Lilliam de Jesús Lezama Gaitán was dismissed in mid-September 2023.
At the National Agrarian University, Alberto Sediles Jaén was removed as rector and replaced by Bosco Castillo Marín, political secretary of the FSLN in Granada and former head of the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG).
At the National University of Engineering (UNI), rector Glenda Velásquez was ousted on October 18, 2024. Along with her, more than 65 employees were fired, a source from the university revealed to CONFIDENCIAL at the time.
“With Every Fall, Many Pawns Go Down”
In the “silent sweeps” of university authorities, staff not directly connected to them have also been caught up. Professors with over 25 years of experience, adjunct instructors, department heads, administrative staff, technicians, and security guards have all been dismissed.
“One would think those fired would be people close to the university’s power centers, but people who hadn’t even met or spoken to the rector have been let go,” says Guillermo, an administrative worker at the National University Casimiro Sotelo, located on facilities confiscated from the Central American University (UCA).
He admits, however, that “with each fall of high-ranking officials like the now former rector Alejandro Genet, many pawns who enjoyed positions and privileges within the university also went down.”
The worst part for Guillermo is that “there doesn’t seem to be any clear criteria for why someone gets fired,” which has created “terror” among many workers “because they know anyone could be next.”
“Sometimes you want to believe they’ll only fire those who don’t actively participate in the political activities called by the government, but the reality is that even very loyal Sandinistas, who thought they were untouchable because of their party loyalty, have been let go,” he explains.
Small “power groups” within the universities
Since 2023, Nicaragua’s public universities have been implementing an “organizational restructuring,” moving away from the traditional faculties to “knowledge areas.” In practice, this has been “a total mess,” reveals a source from the National Engineering University (UNI) to CONFIDENCIAL.
In the case of this university, they have “forced together” programs that “have nothing to do with each other.” The source cites the example of Chemical Engineering, which went from being a faculty with a well-prepared faculty mostly trained abroad to now just an academic program with a minimal number of instructors.
After that first wave of restructuring, in November 2024, other areas were eliminated, leading to dismissals of administrative and teaching staff “without any explanation or logical criteria to understand who would leave and who would stay.”
“These dismissals—and in some cases encouraging retirement for professors who were already of retirement age—were organized by small power groups within the universities,” says the UNI source.
According to this source, these groups have “taken public universities hostage” and acted without criteria to include in the layoffs academics and administrative staff “who were not to their liking.”
Lack of budget and corruption
A source linked to public universities points out that the wave of dismissals is related to the state’s inability to “continue fully funding the universities with the complete 6% [of the national budget].”
According to the UNI official, along the way rectors, vice-rectors, and general secretaries have also been fired “for mismanagement of public funds and the universities’ own income.”
With these removals, they have uncovered “extensive corruption networks” operating within public universities, involving human resources staff, administrators, finance personnel, and heads of procurement, investment, and infrastructure — areas “where large sums of money managed by the universities each year are handled.”
Audits conducted at the universities have revealed “inflated payrolls or personnel who have never worked at the universities, payments for nonexistent consulting services, rigged contracts in infrastructure projects,” among other unauthorized corrupt acts, the university source indicates.
Loyalty to Murillo prioritized
Ernesto Medina, former rector of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-León) and the American University (UAM), has assessed that the dismissal of rectors shows the end of university autonomy.
In Medina’s view, the regime’s severe human resources crisis stems from “their insistence on making loyalty — no longer even political loyalty — but loyalty to Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega the main criterion for appointments.”
In May 2025, the dictatorship eliminated the National Council for Evaluation and Accreditation (CNEA), transferring its regulatory role over Nicaragua’s universities to the Specialized Technical Secretariat headed by former student leader and Sandinista political operator Bismark Santana.
Shortly before, they had revived a National Council of University Rectors, effectively eliminating the National University Council (CNU).
The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship has committed “serious human rights violations and abuses” against students, professors, academic leaders, and other university personnel, revealed a November 2024 report by the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN).
Some violations constitute “crimes against humanity including murder, imprisonment, torture, deportation, and political persecution,” according to the experts, who point to the individual responsibility of Ortega and Murillo in committing these crimes and using the state apparatus to silence the university community.
Qualified personnel “uncomfortable for uneducated authorities”
The UNI source estimates that nearly 40% of academic staff in public universities have been fired, and that most affected are “prestigious professors with many years of experience and academic degrees — in many cases unique in the country — obtained abroad.”
According to the source, these individuals are “more vulnerable” to the universities’ power and control groups “because they are prestigious academics with master’s and doctoral degrees from abroad, with clear criteria about what it means to be a university professor and high-level researcher. This makes them uncomfortable for authorities without education or academic standards who only seek to profit.”
These staff cuts are also “diminishing the educational quality of universities,” which is why the university official insists that “most of the remaining personnel are fighting internal battles to preserve what’s left of the universities and their autonomy, at least in academic freedom in direct teaching, so as not to further harm the students who come looking to fulfill their dream of becoming professionals.”
