The U.S. State Department criticized Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega after he announced Sunday that the Central American country would no longer hold elections.
Ortega’s move cements his effective dictatorship over the country after years of increasingly repressive measures since he legally took power in 2007.
“Daniel Ortega’s declaration that Nicaragua will never hold elections again under a dictatorship exposes Nicaragua’s true authoritarian nature,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a press statement Tuesday.
Ortega, 80, has served as co-chairman with his wife, Rosario Murillo, since 2025.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, “The international community must come together to show the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship that it cannot maintain business as usual.”
Following Ortega’s announcement, a U.S. State Department spokesperson also said: fox news “The Nicaraguan regime is an enemy of humanity.”
Ortega has been a central figure in Nicaraguan politics for decades. He initially came to power in 1979 as the leader of the Sandinista revolution. The Sandinista Revolution was a popular uprising against the 43-year US-backed dynastic dictatorship of the Somoza family.
Ortega announced a ban on future elections during a national event commemorating the 47th anniversary of the revolution.
Ortega remained in power until he was eliminated in democratic elections in 1990, but was later re-elected as president in the 2006 elections.
Since returning to power, Ortega’s government has gradually eroded Nicaraguan democracy. Ortega amended the constitution to allow unlimited presidential terms, cracked down on opposition media outlets and increasingly detained dissidents or those perceived as dissidents.
Dr. Luciano Baracco, associate professor of political science and international relations and expert on Nicaraguan politics, said: Latin America Report On the significance of Ortega’s proposed ban on elections.
Baracco argued that, as dramatic as it may sound, the ban makes little sense in an already highly authoritarian system. “Civil society was destroyed. The Sandinista government kicked out hundreds of NGOs and the same thing happened to journalists.”
“To become a working journalist, you must have a working license, but if you are critical (of the country), it will not be issued.”
Reporters Without Borders It is estimated that between 2018 and 2025, 217 Nicaraguan journalists were forcibly expelled due to their political affiliation.
The associate professor also noted that while the planned ban on elections means strengthening Ortega’s centralization of power, electoral democracy in the country was virtually non-existent before the announcement.
All of Ortega’s leading presidential opponents in the 2021 election have been jailed or exiled.
“Political opposition in terms of formal political parties has been banned or vacated.” Accordingly, the academic community concluded, “There is no possibility that the National Assembly will oppose the ban proposal.”
Baracco was also skeptical that U.S. opposition to the ban would have any meaningful effect.
“The United States would certainly welcome the overthrow of Ortega… (but) is Nicaragua important enough for the United States to intervene? Marco Rubio is clearly after Cuba… Nicaragua will become a sideshow.”
The United States recently imposed sanctions on some Nicaraguan government officials and their relatives for complicity in human rights abuses.
But sanctions against Nicaragua do not match those against Cuba in scale or intensity, and Cuba continues to suffer from a near-total oil blockade and a decades-long trade embargo.
As Baracco argues, American hostility toward Cuba dwarfs its hostility toward Nicaragua. Washington has repeatedly threatened regime change in Cuba in 2026.
So the ban on elections, although symbolic, is likely to pass in the Central American country and further consolidate Ortega’s 20-year rule.
Featured image: Daniel Ortega and Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. The two men were political allies.
Image source: Alex Castro (Flickr)
patent: Creative Commons License
