Nicaragua’s co-president is taking intense heat from the State Department after the socialist revolutionary declared that the Central American country he rules alongside his wife will no longer hold elections.
The State Department on Tuesday condemned Daniel Ortega, who has retained power as the country’s leader for nearly 20 years, writing his “declaration that under his family’s dictatorship Nicaragua will never again hold elections lays bare their true authoritarian nature and that, “Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have abandoned even the pretense of popular consent.”
“Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega, along with their enablers, continue to threaten our national security interests in our region. Their facilitation of illegal immigration, deepening of adversarial relationships, and abuse of human rights and repression of Nicaraguans destabilizes our hemisphere, in defiance of the Trump Administration’s efforts to generate safety and prosperity,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“The Nicaraguan regime is an enemy of humanity.”
Ortega, now 80, said on Monday that he would cancel future elections to stop opposition parties from taking power in Nicaragua, which he classified as attempts to “seize the government.”
From the 1960s to the 1990, Ortega was a leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a radical far–left guerrilla movement inspired by Marxism, the Cuban revolutionary politics and anti-imperialism. When the Sandinistas overthrew the U.S.-backed Samoza family dictatorship in 1979, Ortega emerged as a leader. The country aligned itself with Cuba and Russia during the Cold War, and nationalized banks and industry.
NICARAGUA’S ORTEGA SAYS COUNTRY WILL ‘NEVER AGAIN’ HOLD ELECTIONS, SHUTTING OUT OPPOSITION
Ortega assumed power after the revolution, and led the country until 1990. He was voted out of office, and accepted the results of that election. For the next 16 years, he led an opposition movement before finally being reelected in 2016.
Since then, he and his family have rapidly consolidated power, including changing the country’s constitution in 2025 to create the role of co-president, which Ortega then gave to his wife Rosario Murillo, who now addresses the nation daily.
In 2018, anti-Ortega unrest gripped the nation, but was swiftly put down by the left-wing government.
Some observers note that since retaking power in 2007, Ortego has softened his revolutionary tendencies and embraced a left-wing populism , and that he holds conservative social beliefs.
“There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” Ortega, now 80, said on Monday. “The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somocistas would return to power are over — never again.”
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The term “Somocistas” refers to supporters of the Somoza family dictatorship.
“The Nicaraguan people have the right to choose their own leaders through democratic elections,” the State Department’s message continued. “The United States calls on the international community to join forces to demonstrate to the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship that it cannot expect to maintain business as usual with other nations when it is thwarting the basic tenets of our democratic hemisphere.”
Several of Ortega and Murillo’s children occupy powerful government positions, including Daniel Edmundo Ortega Murillo, who is the government’s chief of communications and oversees state-run media. Another son operates a radio and television station that props up Ortega’s messaging.
The couple’s daughter, Camila Ortega Murillo, runs the country’s state-backed cultural and fashion initiatives.
Laureano Ortega Murillo, perhaps the most forward-facing of the children, controls the country’s diplomatic relations with China and Russia, and works with those countries on investments and trade.
