Daniel Ortega

Daniel Ortega first came to power as part of the Sandinista revolutionary government in 1979 and served as president from 1985 to 1990 before losing an election and stepping down. He returned to the presidency in 2007 and has ruled continuously since, governing alongside his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is widely seen as co-ruler. His government abolished presidential term limits in 2014 and has since jailed, exiled, or stripped citizenship from hundreds of opposition figures, journalists, and civil society leaders, actions documented extensively by Human Rights Watch.

Following mass 2018 protests that were met with a lethal crackdown killing several hundred people, Ortega's government closed or expropriated hundreds of NGOs, universities, and media outlets, and stripped the citizenship of dozens of exiled dissidents, including Catholic bishops. His 2021 re-election was conducted with the country's main opposition candidates jailed beforehand.