Police with a free hand to arrest those they consider a threat
In La Prensa, May 20, 2025
Even though the arrests of opponents have been arbitrary and illegal since 2018, at the beginning the political prisoners were presented to the official media.
Of all the institutions under the control of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, the Police are considered that one with the greatest discretion for acting against the dissidents who still remain in the country.
Proof of this are the arbitrary arrests which are not reported officially, while the relatives of the victims are afraid to denounce them out of fear of reprisals. All this makes these detentions invisible, above all when they deal with local dissidents.
Even though since 2018 the arrests of opponents have been arbitrary and illegal, previously political prisoners were presented to the official media, which confirmed where they were and how their process would be.
Highest expression of the police state
Nevertheless, in recent years, dissidents who are detained remain in a condition of disappearance. There are many cases in which nothing more is known about them, like what happened with the indigenous deputy Brooklyn Rivera Bryan or the journalist Fabiola Tercero, among the most prominent cases.
“This is happening because the Ortega-Murillo regime has raised the police and military state to its highest expression in Nicaragua. Never before like now have powers and functions been granted to the security organs, principally the National Police and Army of Nicaragua, which maximize the power of these two institutions. For example, today the Police have jurisdictional functions in cases of expropriation of property, when crimes like embezzlement and others are at stake,” said a security expert who spoke with La Prensa under the condition of anonymity.
In the case of the Army, the source said that they have been given functions for the control of internet and espionage of digital communications, while there are efforts of the regime to acquire Chinese technology for that purpose.
“In conclusion, the Police today do not need an arrest warrant to detain anyone, the order of a higher official is enough to do it, because they have been given functional autonomy from the judicial branch. What exists in Nicaragua today is a political-military and police state, in which the security organs exercise a great amount of real power,” the source added.
Police with more power
A Nicaraguan political analyst also stated that the Ortega dictatorship is giving more power to the Police, and a good example of this is the Police notification that inidcates that judicial services on impounding, occupation of assets for debt or eviction, only need to be authorized by the chief of Police and in-law of the dictator, Francisco Díaz and the general commissioner, Victoriano Ruiz Urbina.
“With the transformation of the judicial branch into an organ subordinated to the Presidency, the Ortega:Murillos have placed the Police above the judicial authorities, especially the administration of justice, and this new modality of exercising this power in a discretional manner,” said the political analyst.
They seek to cause uncertainty for social control
The lawyer in exile, Yader Morazán, considered that the behavior of the Ortega Police “are techniques to perpetuate uncertainty and social control through generalized fear.”
“Everything is part of a systematic procedural treatment oriented to cause fear, dread and anxiety in the population beyond the direct victims, because with the detention they threaten the relatives to face similar consequences if they go to inquire at the police stations, then they even process them clandestinely. To do so they have equipped videoconference rooms in the jails, where they hold preliminary hearings without the presence of a lawyer, nor provide information to their families. Meanwhile, the judicial system now hides the virtual and physical file on the one hand, and on the other they reject appeals for personal exhibition for an illegal arrest,” said Morazán.
Even though more than seven years have passed since the social uprising of 2018 which generated the fury of the Ortega Murillo dictatorship, the arrests and threats to dissidents and everyone who expressed any type of criticism or discontent, continue in effect today in the country.
Particularly this Saturday May 17 more than 20 opposition leaders were detained, most of them members of the now cancelled Citizens for Freedom Party, among them the former mayors of Santa María de Pantasma and San Sebastián de Yalí, both municipalities in Jinotega, which are places historically known for their anti-Sandinism.
The reason for these arrests are unknown, because in addition the former mayors Oscar Gadea and Noel Moreno kept a low profile since they were removed in 2022. Monday it became known that they had been freed, but it was impossible to confirm it with their relatives due to their fear to speak.
The president in exile of the Citizens for Liberty Party, Kitty Monterrery, denounced that “this new repressive escalation is an example of the situation of the lack of freedoms which Nicaraguans are experiencing.”