{"id":167003,"date":"2025-05-17T14:50:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T20:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/sin-categoria\/how-ortega-and-murillo-decide-who-keeps-their-nicaraguan-nationality\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T11:25:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T17:25:44","slug":"how-ortega-and-murillo-decide-who-keeps-their-nicaraguan-nationality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/en\/english\/how-ortega-and-murillo-decide-who-keeps-their-nicaraguan-nationality\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ortega and Murillo Decide Who Keeps Their Nicaraguan Nationality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In less than six months, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has reformed Nicaragua\u2019s Constitution to strip more people of their Nicaraguan nationality and block mechanisms for claiming it, affecting even newborns.<\/p>\n\n

On Friday, May 16, 2025, the National Assembly, under Ortega and Murillo\u2019s orders, approved a partial constitutional reform establishing that Nicaraguans by birth \u201cwill lose their nationality <\/a>upon acquiring another nationality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Lawmakers amended Articles 23 and 25 of the Constitution, which had been the only ones left untouched during a recent sweeping constitutional overhaul that the regime misleadingly presented as “partial.”<\/p>\n\n

The new version of Article 25 now states that “Nicaraguan nationality shall be lost at the moment of acquiring another nationality”.<\/p>\n\n

The revised Article 23 adds that \u201cforeigners may become naturalized citizens after renouncing their original nationality,\u201d while \u201cCentral Americans by origin who reside in Nicaragua have the right to Nicaraguan nationality without renouncing their own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The reform eliminates the clause that previously read: “In cases of dual nationality, matters shall proceed in accordance with treaties and the principle of reciprocity.”<\/p>\n\n

Changes in the So-Called “Chamuca Constitution”<\/h2>\n\n

In what\u2019s now being called the \u201cChamuca Constitution\u201d\u2014approved in its second legislative session in February 2025<\/a>\u2014the regime cut the number of articles in Title III, Chapter One (on \u201cNicaraguan nationality\u201d), from eight to four. The reform drastically simplified and condensed the rules surrounding nationality, removing important provisions. <\/p>\n\n

One change that even affects the children of Nicaraguans is the complete overhaul of Article 16<\/a>, which eliminated the detailed list of who is considered Nicaraguan by birth. Now, that definition is left up to a future law that has not yet been passed.<\/p>\n\n

The original Article 16 stated that the following are considered Nicaraguan nationals:<\/p>\n\n