Do we like them?Do we like Daniel Ortega?
Our score: 1 out of 10. UN-mandated experts say his government's repression amounts to crimes against humanity, and the real good he did is decades old and disputed.
Daniel Ortega is 80 and has been in Nicaraguan politics for most of his life. The World describes him as the former leader of the Sandinista guerrilla movement that toppled the Somoza dictatorship, and this year's anniversary of that win was 47 years ago. That's the liberator story. What came after is why he's on this page.
A UN-mandated group of human rights experts said in March 2023 that Nicaragua's government had committed torture, extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detention since 2018, amounting to crimes against humanity. They named Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, as participants. The experts said they sent 12 letters and got no reply, and the government's Geneva mission didn't answer Al Jazeera. No court has ruled on it, so it stays an allegation from the experts.
The Catholic Church copped it too. Al Jazeera reported that Ortega blamed the Church for aiding the 2018 protests, which he called an attempted coup, and that police arrested priests and charged some with treason. In October 2023 twelve priests were flown to Rome after talks with the Vatican; the government called it a sign of its commitment to find solutions. Bishop Rolando Álvarez was jailed on treason charges, sentenced to 26 years, and sent into exile in 2024.
Power has only tightened since. A constitutional reform ratified in January 2025 made Ortega and Murillo co-presidents, with control over the other branches of the state, and stretched terms to six years. Then came the July 2026 report that elections would stop altogether. Where you land on how much that matters depends on whether you read it as a dismantling of democracy or, as the government framed the reform, a model of direct democracy.
On the harm test, the UN experts report that women, girls and LGBTIQ+ people were hit with gender-based violence as political repression, and that nearly 300 women's and LGBTIQ+ organisations have closed. The government didn't respond in the coverage we read. In April 2026 the US Treasury also sanctioned officials and gold-sector companies linked to Ortega's government. That's a lot of harm to a lot of the people this page cares about.
There's also an old allegation. In 1998 his stepdaughter told a Nicaraguan court that he had sexually abused her, and La Nación reported his legal adviser said Ortega would appear to defend himself and would not be prosecuted because of his immunity as a lawmaker. Reports say a judge shelved the case in 2001. It was never tried, so it remains an allegation and nothing more.