US sanctions over 100 Nicaraguan officials after death of indigenous leader

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified sanctions against Nicaraguan officials following the death of indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera while in government custody.

In a statement on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the circumstances of Rivera's death as "horrific." He also emphasized that the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo — the couple who jointly hold Nicaragua's presidency — had treated Rivera as a "political prisoner" as part of a campaign to suppress dissent.

"Today, the Trump administration took decisive steps to impose additional visa restrictions on more than 100 officials and family members of the dictatorship," Rubio said. "With these new restrictions, the U.S. government has now taken steps to impose visa restrictions on more than 2,350 Nicaraguan officials and their families for their complicity in the dictatorship of Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega."

The Murillo-Ortega government has long faced criticism for its treatment of those considered dissidents, who face prison terms, forced exile, and revocation of citizenship. Successive U.S. administrations have criticized Nicaragua over its human rights record, but scrutiny increased after Rivera's death last week.

Rivera, 73, had been detained since September 2023, with virtually no contact with the outside world. His sudden death came shortly after the Nicaraguan government released images of him bedridden and intubated in a medical facility. Those photos sparked an outcry from the international community and Rivera's family, who demanded access to the detained activist and evidence of his health condition.

On May 27, his daughter Tininiska Rivera issued a statement denouncing "the inhuman and undignified conditions" under which her father was held. "On the day of my father's arrest, September 29, 2023, he left home in good health. The regime cannot blame pre-existing pathologies for the physical deterioration of a man who has been detained for three years," she wrote. Days later, on May 31, the Nicaraguan government announced Rivera had died of organ failure.

The news only deepened the outrage. A group of United Nations experts described Rivera's death as part of "a broader pattern of violations against indigenous and Afro-descendant people" in Nicaragua. They called for an independent autopsy to determine the cause of death and for the activist's remains to be returned to his family. "The failure to conduct an independent investigation and return the remains fuels strong speculation about state responsibility for the death of Brooklyn Rivera in custody," said expert Jan-Michael Simon.

The U.N. panel noted that 124 indigenous leaders in Nicaragua had been arbitrarily detained between 2018 and 2024, including Rivera. Rivera was a representative of the Miskito people, an Afro-indigenous ethnic group living along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. For much of his political and activist career, he opposed Ortega's Sandinista movement. Starting in the late 1970s, he fought the first Sandinista government as part of the armed Misurasata group, leading to years of exile. Later, the Yamata political movement he co-founded reached a short-lived compromise with Ortega after the leftist leader returned to the presidency in 2007. But relations soured again, especially amid tensions over indigenous access to resource-rich land.

In 2023, months before his detention, Rivera traveled to Geneva to speak at a U.N. forum, where he criticized the Ortega government. He was subsequently banned from re-entering Nicaragua but crossed the border secretly and lived in hiding. Authorities arrested him on terrorism-related charges. He remained in custody until his death.

Ortega has long faced criticism that his government actively silences dissent, but the campaign escalated after widespread anti-government protests in 2018. Hundreds of people were arrested during that protest movement, and at least 355 were killed. Since then, the government has restricted the activities of non-profit organizations, church groups, and media outlets, forcing many to close. In a 2025 report, the non-profit Human Rights Watch estimated that nearly 5,600 non-governmental organizations had been forced to shut down since 2018.

In 2023, the Ortega government also carried out mass expulsions of political prisoners, sending activists, politicians, and religious figures abroad, then seizing their assets and revoking their citizenship. Critics note that these expulsions left political prisoners vulnerable and stateless. The effort was also seen as a way to remove individuals who could threaten Ortega's leadership.

Ortega's actions to suppress dissent have been accompanied by efforts to consolidate power. The Sandinista-controlled Nicaraguan Congress passed reforms extending the presidential term to six years, allowing unlimited appointments of vice presidents, and permitting greater military involvement in policing. Ortega also elevated his wife, Murillo, from vice president to co-president. In the event of Ortega's death, the reforms would allow Murillo to succeed him without calling new elections.

Since returning to a second term in 2025, Trump has taken an active interest in Latin American politics, including intervening in regional elections. He has consistently backed right-wing candidates to replace leftist leaders and threatened to cut U.S. financial assistance depending on election outcomes. In Venezuela, Trump also authorized a military campaign on January 3 to remove incumbent President Nicolas Maduro, a move widely condemned as a violation of international law. He has also threatened Cuba with military action.

Nicaragua has not faced as much scrutiny from Trump, although Rubio has repeatedly mentioned the country in the same context as Cuba and Venezuela. The secretary of state has also called the Ortega-Murillo government "an enemy of humanity." In Monday's statement, Rubio reaffirmed U.S. support for human rights activists in Nicaragua. "The United States stands with the Nicaraguan people, who, like Rivera, long to see a free Nicaragua," he wrote.