Hora Cero
junio 16, 2025
Since the crisis began in 2018, the president of Nicaragua has had major clashes with representatives of the progressive left in the region, who accuse him of violating human rights and betraying the ideals of the Sandinista Revolution.
Since taking office in 2022, Chilean President Gabriel Boric has been an outspoken critic of the Ortega dictatorship, accusing them of acting “so far removed from the Sandinista promise and hope. Today, they are more like Somoza than anything else.”
“Yesterday it was Pinochet, today it is Ortega in Nicaragua who denies the rights of Gioconda Belli or Sergio Ramirez and renders them stateless. But that homeland does not depend on papers signed by dictators; it goes much further than that.”
Gabriel Boric, October 2025
Ortega has had several public clashes with Gustavo Petro through speeches and social media. In August 2024, Ortega accused the Colombian president of “representing the Yankees in Latin America.”
In 2024, the Nicaraguan dictator engaged in a heated argument with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whom he accused of disrespecting the Venezuelan people by demanding that Nicolás Maduro present the electoral records due to the fraud committed in the last elections.
These statements came a month after Nicaragua expelled the Brazilian ambassador for his absence from the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, which the dictatorship considered an affront. In response, the Brazilian government withdrew its delegate from Managua.
In an interview, the president of Brazil confessed that he had tried to speak with Daniel Ortega because Pope Francis had asked him to intercede for the release of an imprisoned bishop. Lula said that the president of Nicaragua never wanted to talk to him.
Nicaragua has faced gradual isolation due to human rights violations and the refusal of the dictatorial couple to relinquish power. So far, Ortega maintains good relations only with the regimes of Cuba and Venezuela in Latin America.
