Nicaragua’s 14 Missing Political Prisoners
The Mechanism for the Identification of Political Prisoners documents crimes against humanity, while the dictatorship ignores the orders of the Inter-American Court.
HAVANA TIMES – At least fourteen political prisoners are in a state of forced disappearance in the Nicaraguan jails, with family members deprived of any information regarding their whereabouts or state of health.
The organization Mecanismo para el Reconocimiento de Personas Presas Políticas de Nicaragua [Mechanism for the Identification of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua] points out that forced disappearance is a systematic practice characterized as a crime against humanity. International law defines it as deliberately concealing the whereabouts of those detained by government agents.
“Forced disappearance means that there’s no definitive proof of the place where they are… it’s considered a forced disappearance because their whereabouts are being concealed,” Claudia Pineda, spokesperson for Mechanismo, explained to Confidencial and the online television news program Esta Semana.
In an interview with journalist Carlos F. Chamorro, set to air on Sunday, June 8th on the CONFIDENCIAL YouTube channel, Pineda confirmed that the families of these Nicaraguans live with the anguish of not knowing whether their loved ones are alive or dead.
According to the Mechanism’slatest report, a total of 52 political prisoners remain in Nicaraguan jails, including the 14 disappeared. Of this total, 32 have been sentenced in bogus trials that don’t meet minimum standards of due process, while 19 remain in detention without ever having been tried.
Flouting the International Court
In early June 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the immediate release of three disappeared political prisoners: Angelica Chavarria, partner of retired Army General Humberto Ortega Saavedra, brother of Daniel Ortega, who was detained in May 2024 and died while a political prisoner; Julio Quintana, a lawyer from León, detained in November 2024; and Alejandro Hurtado, a politician from the Independent Liberal Party, detained in January 2025. The response of the regime was the same as always: absolute silence.
“The State of Nicaragua has not responded to any of [the Court’s] petitions, requests or demands,” denounced Pineda.
In November 2022, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared the Nicaraguan State in “permanent contempt” of numerous orders to release political prisoners. It referred the situation to the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, although the Nicaraguan dictatorship has formally withdrawn from that forum.
“Prolonged disregard by the State persists, which places the beneficiaries of the provisional measures in an increasingly vulnerable situation, and implies an increase in the situation of risk,” the Inter-American Human Rights Court indicated in a resolution finalized on November 29, 2022.
Pineda confirmed that international organizations such as the United Nations are aware of the situation of the political prisoners and the cases of forced disappearance. However, she noted, the dictatorship has cut off all communication, even with the International Red Cross. The Nicaraguan government “hasn’t even recognized that it is holding these people prisoner, despite the fact that “there’s evidence that they were jailed,” she added.
This systematic denial converts each case into a clear-cut forced disappearance, in which the authorities erase all traces of their victims, leaving the families to face ongoing psychological torture.
List of the fourteen political prisoners in forced disappearance
According to a report published in April 2025 by the “Mechanism for the Identification of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua” the 14 prisoners in forced disappearance are:
- Brooklyn Rivera, detained September 29, 2023.
- Douglas Gamaliel Alvarez Morales, detained February 16, 2024.
- Víctor Boitano Coleman, detained Abril 23, 2024.
- Angelica Patricia Chavarría, detained May 19, 2024.
- Eveling Carolina Matus Hernandez, detained June 26, 2024.
- Fabiola Tercero Castro, detained July 12, 2024.
- Eddie Gonzalez Valdivia, detained July 14, 2024.
- Lesbia Gutierrez Poveda, detained August 10, 2024.
- Carmen María Saenz Martínez, detained August 10, 2024.
- Steadman Fagot Muller, detained August 14, 2024.
- Fabio Alberto Caceres Larios, detained November 22, 2024.
- Leo Catalino Carcamo, detained November 22, 2024.
Ever more intense repression
In May 2025, more than a dozen Nicaraguans were abducted in the north of the country. Although some have been released, “there is still a fair-sized group of people in jail,” without the right to communicate, Pineda stated.
Prison conditions, according to Pineda, “are equally terrible” in all the Nicaraguan prisons. The regime has turned the jails into torture centers inaccessible to any human rights organization.
In addition, the spokeswoman for the Mechanism warned that dozens of Nicaraguans are living under “de facto house arrest,” confined to their homes without any judicial process. The real magnitude of this practice is impossible to determine, because “people are very afraid,” explained Pineda.She warned that “the repressive tendencies affect more people every day.”
The strategy of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is to sow terror, in order to paralyze any spark of opposition. The regime has managed to turn fear into their most effective control mechanism, limiting the mobility and communication of citizens.
Impenetrable secrecy as a method
Pineda also denounced that “the regime has totally closed the doors, and the prisons are beyond the reach of human rights organizations.” As a result, no international organization can verify the detainees’ conditions. This silence and opacity allows torture, forced disappearance and cruel treatment to be perpetuated without witnesses.
The situation documented by the Mecanismo group reveals that the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship has turned forced disappearance into state policy, while impunity has become the government norm.
While the international community issues resolutions that the dictatorship ignores, 14 Nicaraguan families continue without knowing if their loved ones are still alive.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.