Amnesty International on Thursday raised alarm after Nicaragua’s announcement of a constitutional reform initiative that threatens to erase the country’s remaining democratic safeguards, extending presidential terms and permanently barring opponents from elections.
President Daniel Ortega and co‑president Rosario Murillo have been accused of widespread abuses, from jailing critics to stripping political opponents of their possessions.
President Daniel Ortega called for extending presidential terms from six years to seven years., and bar opposition candidates, claiming that the opposition is controlled by the United States. During a speech last Sunday at an event commemorating the 1979 Sandinista revolution, President Ortega said: “There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power.”
President Ortega, now ruling with his wife the “co-president” Rosario Murillo, has been in power since 2007. Murillo was formally designated her position in government following constitutional changes in 2024.
On Tuesday, Congress President Gustavo Porras offered a preview of the constitutional reform’s content, according to several media reports, though he withheld substantive details. The measure, which is slated for approval in September, comes on the heels of recent remarks by the president asserting that elections would no longer be held in Nicaragua, a move aimed at preventing the opposition from “seizing the government.” Other governments around the world have since denounced President Ortega’s statement that Nicaragua will no longer hold free elections, urging the country to comply with democratic principles in fears that it will lead to an unprecedented level of authoritarian control.
Nicaragua is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), having acceded to it on March 12, 1980. It is therefore bound by the provisions of the ICCPR particularly Article 25 in this context. The reform would curtail political freedoms by restricting opposition voices and consolidating executive power. According to Amnesty International, the measures undermine democratic governance and violate the civil right of Nicaraguan citizens to participate in political activities.
This development is only the latest in a string of measures by the Nicaraguan government led by President Ortega and Co-President Murillo along with state security forces and loyalist institutions to silence political opposition. Rights groups have previously condemned the government for its unconstitutional control over the judiciary, where closed-door hearings were constantly held and cases were fast-tracked without granting individuals proper access to defence counsel, which is a violation of the presumption of innocence and Article 8(2)(d) of the American Convention on Human Rights (the Pact of San José).
Besides Supreme Courts and lower courts being forced to follow directives from the government to strip critics, activists and religious figures of their citizenship without due process, the revocation of practising credentials for lawyers throughout the country without any justifiable basis has been condemned by rights groups as a further assault on an already fragile judiciary.
