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Masked Paramilitaries Imposed in Nicaragua's New Constitution

Azahálea Solís: They are displaying a message of "terror"; Juan Pappier, HRW expert, "these are terrifying images," "a legal outrage."

"Volunteer police" in Nicaragua.

Swearing in of the alleged hooded volunteer police. In 2018, this “Volunteer Police” acted as a paramilitary group leaving dozens dead between June and July of that year. // Photo: National Police.

Carlos F. Chamorro

21 de enero 2025

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The National Police has sworn in thousands of hooded paramilitaries in the departments of Estelí, León, and Madriz, who are supposedly part of the “Voluntary Police.”

This illegal armed body of paramilitaries was dubbed by Daniel Ortega himself as the 'Voluntary Police' in July 2018, justifying that due to the supposed danger of their operations, they needed to operate wearing masks.

“It’s a message of terror” to crush the resistance in Nicaragua, but the regime is “putting itself in display,” says constitutional lawyer Azahálea Solís. Meanwhile, Juan Pappier, a human rights expert from Human Rights Watch (HRW), described the images of the hooded “volunteer police” as “terrifying,” reminding him of the paramilitary groups from 2018.

In a conversation on the Esta Semana program, broadcast on CONFIDENCIAL’s YouTube channel due to television censorship in Nicaragua, Solís and Pappier analyzed the implications of the new Constitution, which will come into effect after its approval at the end of January. Among other legal aberrations, it legalizes paramilitaries and statelessness.



“Nicaragua is exposing itself to international litigation, and I hope there are countries brave enough to bring a case against Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice, because the evidence couldn’t be clearer that international obligations on statelessness are being violated with the more than 450 people who have been stripped of their nationality, and with the constitutional enshrinement of this legal outrage,” warned Pappier.

In the National Assembly, the new Constitution, tailored to Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, is being approved and will come into effect at the end of this month, January. Let’s start with the issue of the thousands of hooded individuals who have been sworn in by the National Police. Are they voluntary police or paramilitaries? Why is this armed group, which left a trail of terror in 2018, being incorporated into the Constitution?

Azahálea Solís: That’s the dimension of terror they represent. When the hooded individuals appeared in 2018, there were various versions, but the one that has prevailed is the one given by Daniel Ortega, who claimed they were actually “Voluntary Police.” It was the way they found to give an apparent legitimacy to such a violation of people's lives and freedoms.

This is a clear way to show what’s happening in Nicaragua, exposing the government’s position of swearing in hooded individuals. They’re justifying that, in 2018, these hooded “voluntary police” needed to cover their faces because of what they were doing. They’re putting this decision on display.

In other countries in Latin America, we’ve seen officers who belong to anti-narcotics or anti-terrorist units, whose identities are protected from organized crime. But is there any precedent for a large police force like this one in Nicaragua, which is supposedly voluntary but swears in masked individuals?

Juan Pappier: I don’t recall any similar precedents of the terrifying images we’ve seen, which remind me of the paramilitary groups from 2018. I’m not aware of any other cases in the region. We have several governments, like Venezuela’s, using armed civilians in collaboration with security forces. In Venezuela, they’re the 'collectives,' but this attempt to legalize these illegal forces, and do so with hooded figures, feels more like the Colombian paramilitaries. These are truly terrifying images.

Azahálea Solís y Juan Pappier.
Constitutional lawyer Azahálea Solís and Human Rights Watch human rights expert Juan Pappier.

The Constitution being approved this month eliminates the powers of the state, removes the separation of powers, and imposes total centralization. In other words, there’s no control or accountability. What does this mean for the country’s functioning, for official corruption, and for “unauthorized corruption”?

Azahálea Solís: It not only authorizes corruption, but also repression and the persecution of Nicaraguan citizens, or even people in Nicaragua who may not be Nicaraguan. All of this has already happened. The separation of powers was actually legalized in 2008, and the centralization of power was quickly established with Decree 3-2007, issued in January 2007. Now they’re giving it what appears to be a constitutional form. I say "appears" because the Constitution should guarantee rights, and what they’re doing goes against those rights.

So, yes, this will have a major impact, both practically and symbolically, because they’re taking the violation of human rights to the highest legal level. What’s happening is a strategic way of denying rights.

Among the articles approved this week, statelessness and the revocation of nationality are now enshrined in the Constitution, and the so-called crime of treason against the homeland is also added as a political crime. What are the international implications of this?

Juan Pappier: The constitutional enshrinement of this monstrosity they’re discussing—revoking the nationality of “traitors to the homeland”—is a blatant violation of Nicaragua’s international obligations under international law. It directly contradicts the 1961 Convention on Statelessness and exposes Nicaragua to further international litigation on this issue. I hope there are states in the region and around the world that will have the courage to bring a case against Nicaragua, for example, before the International Court of Justice. The evidence is crystal clear that Nicaragua is violating international obligations on statelessness, with over 450 people stripped of their nationality, alongside this constitutional enshrinement of a legal outrage.

The Constitution states that the President must be elected by popular vote. But with this Constitution coming into effect at the end of January, Rosario Murillo will become co-president without being elected. What is the power balance between the co-president and the co-presidentess?

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Azahálea Solís: She’s been the co-president for a long time, and they’ve had no issue assuming roles without having the votes. In 2011, there was massive electoral fraud, and they changed the Constitution with that fraud in 2015, when at least 11 national deputies were granted as a result of that fraud.

The political goal of this is to elevate Rosario Murillo to the Presidency and have the ability to appoint whichever vice presidents they want. They won’t wait for an election, because they would have to wait at least a year, and there’s no time for that. They’ve shown that legal processes are a burden, and they’re just giving a legal form to something that’s a political outrage.

The Human Rights Watch global report, released this week regarding Nicaragua, highlights that since late 2018, all international human rights organizations have been expelled from Nicaragua, including from the UN and OAS, and other independent bodies. In other words, Nicaraguan citizens have been living in a state of total defenselessness for over five years. Are international justice alternatives viable?

Juan Pappier: The report we published is an analysis of the human rights situation in 100 countries around the world, with a chapter dedicated to Nicaragua, documenting the total concentration of power by Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega and the lack of protection for Nicaraguans, due to the lack of judicial independence and the expulsion of UN and OAS international bodies.

I think the only avenue we have left is international justice, through various mechanisms. One of them is presenting a case before the International Court of Justice for violations of the Convention on Statelessness or the Convention Against Torture. Another mechanism is universal jurisdiction. There have been recent announcements in Argentina by a highly questionable judge, but it’s important for universal jurisdiction, and we must move forward so that Nicaraguan victims can achieve justice because it’s impossible for that to happen in Nicaragua today.

Much of what is in this Constitution has been done illegally in Nicaragua in recent years, starting with the hooded paramilitaries. But what is the implication of now having all of this written into a Constitution?

Azahálea Solís: I would say that, both in real and symbolic terms, this will be very powerful for the citizens. Behind this, there is something they haven’t been able to destroy—resistance. It may not be loud and visible on the streets, but there is resistance. And international human rights organizations have been able to monitor what has been happening in Nicaragua since 2018 precisely because of that level of resistance.

This is aimed at destroying that capital of resistance in the country, not only through actions but by using the law with apparent legitimacy. The goal is to destroy those pockets of resistance that still persist in Nicaragua. The information we know about Nicaragua comes from the people of Nicaragua, despite the repression. This aspect must be taken into account and worked on.

But what level of legitimacy can this Constitution have when everyone knows it is being carried out through a completely illegal process, and, secondly, it violates all the fundamental principles of human rights?

Azahálea Solís: In Nicaragua, all of this has been illegal since 2011, starting with the fraud and the artificial and fraudulent majority they created with the 2011 elections. The illegality of Nicaragua is already in the DNA of the Ortega-Murillo government. They are not seeking greater legitimacy within Nicaragua; what they are looking for is to sharpen the terror even further. They are playing with the fact that, internationally, we are seeing governments, regardless of their ideological alignment, that are dismantling the separation of powers and trying to centralize and annul the constitutional legal mechanisms that have been part of modernity for the last 200 years, and they are operating within that framework.

The Human Rights Watch report is quite clear and forceful regarding what this means. But what is the general state of affairs in the international community?

Juan Pappier: The vast majority of the international community is clear on the human rights record of the Daniel Ortega government. The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions, and recently an investigation was announced regarding the impact of human rights violations on business practices in Nicaragua. This investigation will take place in the United States. Ortega has been left only with dictators like Nicolás Maduro and Díaz-Canel, while trying to establish relations with Russia and China to maintain some international company.

The vast majority of the international community understands that we are dealing with a tyrant who systematically and widely violates human rights. Now, we need to move toward coordinating an international response to what is happening in Nicaragua. We have criticisms from governments across both the right and left. What is now necessary is for them to come together and coordinate strategies to effectively pressure this government.

Azahálea Solís: We also need to use extraterritorial justice, not just universal justice. There are people who were repressed in Nicaragua and hold other nationalities, so they can resort to the courts in their own countries to bring cases against Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, using criminal law.

 This article was first published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated by our staff To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.

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Carlos F. Chamorro

Carlos F. Chamorro

Periodista nicaragüense, exiliado en Costa Rica. Fundador y director de Confidencial y Esta Semana. Miembro del Consejo Rector de la Fundación Gabo. Ha sido Knight Fellow en la Universidad de Stanford (1997-1998) y profesor visitante en la Maestría de Periodismo de la Universidad de Berkeley, California (1998-1999). En mayo 2009, obtuvo el Premio a la Libertad de Expresión en Iberoamérica, de Casa América Cataluña (España). En octubre de 2010 recibió el Premio Maria Moors Cabot de la Escuela de Periodismo de la Universidad de Columbia en Nueva York. En 2021 obtuvo el Premio Ortega y Gasset por su trayectoria periodística.

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