Current Nicaraguan Political Prisoners List Rises to 54
Fifteen of the political prisoners are “disappeared due to concealment of whereabouts and denial of visits”.
HAVANA TIMES – At least 54 opposition members and critics of the Nicaraguan government, led by the married couple and “co-presidents” Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, remain imprisoned in the country, including 18 elderly individuals, denounced the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
“In Nicaragua, 54 people currently make up the official list of those detained for political reasons, 15 of whom remain disappeared due to the systematic practice of enforced disappearance,” the Mechanism stated in a report, whose data is endorsed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
“This number reflects the escalation of repression under the Ortega-Murillo regime, which has intensified arbitrary detentions and isolation of detainees, turning disappearances into a strategy of control and repression,” it asserted.
Of the 54 people imprisoned for political reasons, seven are women and 47 are men (including 10 who were detained before the 2018 crisis), the organization noted.
Furthermore, of that total, 35 have been convicted of crimes deemed “treason against the homeland” in judicial proceedings “lacking minimum guarantees of due process,” while 19 are awaiting trial, according to the report.
The organization also warned that among the 54 detainees, 15 are considered “disappeared due to concealment of their whereabouts and denial of visits.”
The updated list includes former Sandinista revolutionary commander Henry Ruiz, who has been under house confinement by the Nicaraguan police since March 8, 2025, as well as former Ortega advisor and retired general Alvaro Baltodano.
Ruiz, one of the nine Sandinista commanders of the National Directorate who held power during the first phase of the Sandinista government (1979–1990), is also the oldest person deprived of liberty, at 81 years old.
Others on the list include Indigenous leaders Brooklyn Rivera Bryan, Steadman Fagoth Müller, and Nancy Elizabeth Henríquez.
Also listed are retired military officers Victor Boitano and Eddie Moises González Valdivia, and journalists Fabiola Tercero and Leo Cercamo, among others.
The Mechanism, which is made up of human rights organizations, families of current and former political prisoners, lawyers, documentation initiatives, and networks of territorial and digital activists, has warned that the actual number of detainees may be higher, as some families refrain from reporting cases out of fear.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.