UN report says Nicaraguan regime caused at least eight deaths in custody since 2018

What Happened

The U.N. Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua announced that the government of co‑Presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is responsible for at least eight deaths of people held in custody since the 2018 crackdown. The report highlighted the death of Indigenous Miskito leader Brooklyn Rivera, who spent 32 months in prison with almost no family contact before dying in May. Officials linked his death to complications after a COVID‑19 infection, a claim the group said was not medically coherent and noted that infections likely began while he was in custody or a hospital. The experts also recorded the deaths of Ortega’s estranged brother Humberto Ortega, former Sandinista guerrilla Hugo Torres and lawyer Carlos Cárdenas Zepeda, all occurring under state custody. In total, the U.N. team documented at least 161 disappearances since 2018 and called for information on 29 missing persons.

Reactions

Jan‑Michael Simon, chair of the U.N. panel, said a state that allows enforced disappearance and custodial deaths fails basic human‑rights standards. Rosario Murillo replied that Rivera received medical care and family support, while the government declined to comment further, sending only a brief email thanking “the interest.”

Background

The 2018 protests sparked a broad government crackdown that dismantled democratic institutions and later led to the cancellation of elections. Independent groups such as Physicians for Human Rights have criticized the official explanations, and the U.N. report urged the government to release Rivera’s body for a traditional Miskito burial and to free any political detainees.