{"id":259622,"date":"2026-06-08T20:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259622\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T20:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:18:10","slug":"us-imposes-restrictions-on-100-nicaraguan-officials-after-activists-death-human-rights-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259622\/","title":{"rendered":"US imposes restrictions on 100 Nicaraguan officials after activist\u2019s death | Human Rights News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has increased its sanctions on Nicaraguan officials following the death of Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera<\/a> while in government custody.<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the circumstances of Rivera\u2019s death as \u201chorrific\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

He also underscored that the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo \u2014 spouses who share Nicaragua\u2019s presidency \u2014 had held Rivera as a \u201cpolitical prisoner\u201d, as part of their campaign to quash dissent.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday the Trump Administration took decisive steps to impose additional visa restrictions on more than 100 dictatorship officials and their family members,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this new set of restrictions, the US government has now taken steps to impose visa restrictions on over 2,350 Nicaraguan officials and their family members for their complicit role in Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega\u2019s dictatorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Murillo-Ortega government has long faced criticism for its treatment of perceived dissidents, who have faced imprisonment, forced exile and the removal of their citizenship.<\/p>\n

Successive US administrations have criticised Nicaragua for its human rights record. But that scrutiny has increased in the wake of Rivera\u2019s death last week.<\/p>\n

\"(FILES)A Nicaraguan government photo shows Brooklyn Rivera at Fernando Velez Paiz Hospital in Managua [AFP]\u2018Broad pattern of violations\u2019<\/p>\n

Rivera, 73, had been held in government custody since September 2023, with little to no contact with the outside world.<\/p>\n

His sudden death last week came shortly after the Nicaraguan government released photos of him bedridden and intubated in a medical facility.<\/p>\n

Those photos prompted outcry from the international community, as well as Rivera\u2019s family, who demanded access to the imprisoned activist, as well as proof of his welfare.<\/p>\n

On May 27, his daughter Tininiska Rivera issued a statement<\/a> denouncing the \u201cundignified, inhumane and degrading conditions\u201d in which her father was held.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the day my father was taken, September 29, 2023, he left his home in optimal health,\u201d Tininiska wrote. \u201cThe regime cannot now claim to blame pre-existing conditions for the physical deterioration of a man who has remained in state custody for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several days later, on May 31, the Nicaraguan government announced Rivera\u2019s death, citing organ failure.<\/p>\n

That news only heightened the outrage. In its aftermath, a group of United Nations experts described Rivera\u2019s death as part of a \u201cbroader pattern of violations against Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples\u201d in Nicaragua.<\/p>\n

It called for an independent autopsy to determine the cause of Rivera\u2019s death, as well as the return of the activist\u2019s remains to his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cFailure to conduct an independent investigation and return the remains reinforces the strong presumption of State responsibility for Brooklyn Rivera\u2019s death in state custody,\u201d one of the experts, Jan-Michael Simon, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The UN group noted that 124 Indigenous leaders in Nicaragua had been subject to arbitrary detention between 2018 and 2024, Rivera among them.<\/p>\n

Rivera was a representative for the Miskito, an Afro-Indigenous people who live along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and Honduras.<\/p>\n

For much of his career as a politician and activist, Rivera clashed with Ortega\u2019s Sandinista movement. Starting in the late 1970s, he fought the first Sandinista government as part of the Misurasata armed group, prompting him to go into exile.<\/p>\n

Later, the political movement Rivera co-founded, Yamata, would strike a brief detente with Ortega after the left-wing leader returned to the presidency in 2007.<\/p>\n

But relations frayed once more, particularly amid tensions over access to resource-rich Indigenous land.<\/p>\n

In 2023, during the months prior to his detention, Rivera travelled to Geneva to address a UN forum, where he was critical of the Ortega government. He was subsequently banned from re-entering Nicaragua, but he smuggled himself in, opting to live in hiding.<\/p>\n

Authorities then arrested him on terrorism-related charges. He was held in custody until his death.<\/p>\n

\u2018Enemy of humanity\u2019<\/p>\n

Ortega has long faced criticism that his government was actively silencing dissent, but that campaign intensified in 2018, after widespread anti-government protests.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people were arrested during that protest movement, and at least 355 people died. Since then, the government has moved to restrict the activities of nonprofits, church groups and media outlets, forcing many to shutter.<\/p>\n

In a 2025 report, the nonprofit Human Rights Watch estimated that nearly 5,600 non-governmental organisations have been forced to close their doors since 2018, limiting oversight of government activities.<\/p>\n

Approximately 1,500 were terminated on a single day in August 2024, after their legal status was abruptly cancelled.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the Ortega government also undertook the mass expulsion of political prisoners<\/a>, sending activists, politicians and religious figures abroad, then stripping them of their property and their citizenship.<\/p>\n

Critics note that such an expulsion rendered the political prisoners vulnerable and stateless, reliant on foreign governments and family abroad for support. The effort was also seen as an attempt to deport those who might pose a threat to Ortega\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

Ortega\u2019s actions to stifle dissent have been coupled with an effort to consolidate power.<\/p>\n

Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista-stacked National Assembly has approved reforms that would extend presidential terms to six years, allow the appointment of unlimited vice presidents and allow greater army involvement in police matters.<\/p>\n

Ortega also elevated his wife, Murillo, from vice president to co-president. In the case of Ortega\u2019s death, the reforms would allow Murillo to succeed him without the need to call for new elections.<\/p>\n

Since returning to office for a second term in 2025, Trump has taken an active interest in Latin American politics, including by weighing in on the region\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

He has repeatedly backed right-wing candidates to replace left-wing leaders and has threatened to withhold US financial support, depending on election outcomes.<\/p>\n

In Venezuela, Trump also authorised a military operation on January 3 to remove then-President Nicolas Maduro, longtime adversary \u2014 a move widely denounced as a violation of international law. He has since threatened Cuba with military action as well.<\/p>\n

Nicaragua has not faced as much scrutiny from Trump, though Rubio has repeatedly mentioned it in the same context as Cuba and Venezuela. The secretary of state has also labelled<\/a> the Ortega-Murillo government as an \u201cenemy of humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Monday\u2019s statement, Rubio reasserted US support for human rights activists in Nicaragua.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States stands with the Nicaraguan people who, like Rivera, aspire to see a free Nicaragua,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The administration of United States President Donald Trump has increased its sanctions on Nicaraguan officials following the death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,609,9959,97572,34201,9,24,12,88907,63,87,901,2272],"class_list":["post-259622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-government","tag-human-rights","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-latin-america","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nicaragua","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}