Weaponizing citizenship: Silencing dissent in Nicaragua

Throughout history, denationalization has been widely employed by states to exclude or expel individuals deemed undesirable, including political dissidents, convicted criminals, and members of ethnic, religious, or racial minority groups.
In the late 1930s, Germany, Italy, and France enacted discriminatory nationality laws that revoked citizenship from targeted groups, particularly — though not exclusively — recently naturalized Jews, thereby facilitating their persecution. In 1941, Panamanian president Arnulfo Arias introduced a new constitution that promoted an exclusionary form of nationalism and established discriminatory citizenship provisions, laying the groundwork for the denationalization of thousands of Afro-Caribbean Panamanians. In 1982, Myanmar (then Burma) adopted a citizenship law that stripped the Rohingya— a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority from Rakhine State — of their citizenship. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Rohingya constitute the world's largest stateless population, with approximately 1.8 million people lacking nationality. Although denationalization does not invariably result in statelessness, it has frequently produced that outcome, leaving many of the communities targeted by such policies without the protection of any state.
As Audrey Macklin asserts in her chapter “The Return of Banishment: Do the New Denationalization Policies Weaken Citizenship?” in the book “Debating Transformations of National Citizenship,” “defenders of citizenship revocation liturgically intone that ‘citizenship is a privilege, not a right,’” an honor that some authoritarian leaders believe must be earned with fidelity to the political path they have envisioned proper for the country.
Narrative: Those who betray their homeland surrender their right to belong
On February 9, 2023, the Nicaraguan government released 222 political prisoners and deported them to the United States. On the same day, the National Assembly — controlled by the ruling party — unanimously approved a constitutional reform authorizing the revocation of the nationality of individuals declared “traitors to the homeland.” These amendments were enacted through Law No. 1145 and were subsequently incorporated into the Law on the Partial Reform of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua. On February 15, 2023, the Nicaraguan government revoked the nationality of an additional 94 Nicaraguans.
A year later, on February 21, 2024, in a speech to celebrate the 90th death anniversary of revolutionary Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino, co-President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega said, “those who betray their homeland cease to belong to that country and cease to have a homeland; that is why those who betray their homeland are called stateless.” In Spanish, homeland is “patria,” and “apátrida” is used to refer to a stateless person. Ortega uses “traición a la patria” and “apátrida” in his statement to equate treason to the homeland (“traición a la patria”) with statelessness.
Ortega made these remarks referring to Adolfo Díaz y Emiliano Chamorro, two former presidents of Nicaragua during the first half of the 20th century, and to the more than 300 people he deprived of their citizenship — comparing those in exile to the two past conservative leaders of the country who favored the United States occupation of Nicaragua (1912–1933), against which Sandino fought.
Members of the current Nicaraguan government and press affiliated with it echo this narrative and the belief that expressing dissent against the current administration is an act of treason that must be penalized with the removal of nationality.
This narrative is also shared outside Nicaragua. In July 2025, Cambodia revised its constitution and passed new legislation authorizing the government to strip Khmer citizenship from individuals found guilty of treason, collaborating with foreign entities, or threatening national security. Referring to the regulation, as reported by Global Voices, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, the son of Senate President Hun Sen, stated:
If you are a patriot and are determined to your last breath not to act against Cambodian interests, please do not worry. But if you have a plan to conspire with a foreign country to destroy Cambodian interests, then you should be [concerned]. And, if you are like that, you should not remain a Cambodian
In July 2026, Russia's parliament passed a law that sends a similar message to dissidents. Under the legislation, Russians living abroad and evading politically motivated charges can be stripped of property rights, access to bank accounts, and consular services — a package of measures that lawyers say effectively amounts to a revocation of citizenship.
The context surrounding the narrative
Daniel Ortega is a former guerrilla fighter who helped overthrow President Anastasio Somoza Debayle in July 1979. Somoza Debayle was the last member of the Somoza family to rule Nicaragua, ending a U.S. backed dynasty that had governed the country since 1936. Ortega first served as Nicaragua's president from 1985 to 1990, representing the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the political party that emerged from the guerrilla movement he belonged to.
From 1990 to 2006, Nicaragua shifted from civil war and Sandinista governance to a multiparty democratic system under the leadership of three consecutive presidents — Violeta Chamorro, Arnoldo Alemán, and Enrique Bolaños — before Daniel Ortega regained the presidency by winning the 2006 election.
Daniel Ortega has ruled Nicaragua since 2007. Following constitutional amendments approved in 2024, he began sharing the presidency with his wife, Rosario Murillo, in 2025.
The Ortega–Murillo administration is widely regarded as authoritarian by numerous international organizations. According to Amnesty International, the Nicaraguan government has consolidated authoritarian control and intensified its suppression of dissent. The organization reports arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances of political opponents, as well as restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and religion. It also documents the continued harassment of journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society organizations. Amnesty International notes that constitutional reforms have expanded state powers while weakening safeguards against abuses, including removing the constitutional prohibition of torture.
The political crisis in Nicaragua has been escalating since 2018, when social protests, sparked by proposed Social Security reforms, reflected years of growing public discontent over restrictions on civic freedoms, weakened institutions, and the concentration of power in the Executive branch. The state's violent crackdown left at least 355 people dead, more than 2,000 injured, and over 2,000 arbitrarily detained.
Ortega and his followers claim to represent the legacy of Augusto César Sandino, a controversial revolutionary who fought for national sovereignty, opposed U.S. intervention in Nicaragua during the 1920s, and inspired the Sandinista movement.
U.S. interventions in Nicaragua occurred on several occasions, most notably William Walker’s filibustering expedition in the mid-nineteenth century, the prolonged U.S. military occupation from 1912 to 1933, and U.S. support for the Contras, a counterrevolutionary armed movement that fought against the FSLN's Junta of National Reconstruction and the presidency of Daniel Ortega during the 1980s.
Ortega has presented himself as one of the significant anti-imperialist leaders of Latin America, together with Fidel Castro (Cuba) and Hugo Chávez Frías (Venezuela). In his discourse, dissidents are considered “traitors of the homeland” and are often linked to imperialist efforts considered to come mainly from the U.S.
The over 300 Nicaraguans who were stripped of their nationality include opposition members, journalists, human rights defenders, writers, and representatives of the Catholic Church. Right after the Nicaraguan government announced its decision, the governments of Mexico, Spain, Chile, and Argentina offered to naturalize those who had recently become stateless.
On July 19, 2026, Daniel Ortega announced that “there will be no more elections” in the country. Nicaragua's presidential election was set for 2027 after a constitutional reform postponed the vote from its original schedule at the end of this year.