TNR Watch: Nicaragua’s Stateless Exiles

A year after the Nicaraguan government stripped hundreds of dissidents of their citizenship, authorities continue to harass them and other political exiles, coercing their relatives back home and restricting their ability to travel. Host-country support and advocacy for targeted individuals and their family members are sorely needed to overcome the precarious conditions they face.

Gone but not forgotten: In late February, Nicaraguan police evicted 93-year-old Rafaela Cerda, the mother of exiled former Supreme Court judge Rafael Solís Cerda, from her Managua residence. Only days earlier, officers had confiscated the property of Solís’s sister and nephew. The Costa Rica–based former judge, who was once an ally of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega before resigning in 2019, was denationalized and declared a traitor in February 2023.

Nicaraguan TNR: In recent years, the Nicaraguan government has used various tactics of transnational repression against its perceived opponents. In addition to coercion by proxy, or harassment of family members back home, the Ortega regime has imposed mobility controls on its critics and effectively denied consular services to uprooted Nicaraguans. At the beginning of 2024, Managua shuttered without warning its consulates in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Houston. In Costa Rica, where more than 200,000 Nicaraguan asylum seekers and refugees reside, Nicaraguan diplomats have reportedly refused to renew the passports of individuals as a form of retaliation for their activism or disagreement with the government.

On the extreme end of the spectrum, authorities have directly forced Nicaraguans into exile, as opposed to compelling them to flee on their own. Once abroad, they encounter everyday forms of transnational repression. In February 2023, Managua made 316 individuals (including Solís) stateless by stripping them of their citizenship, after sending 222 of them to the United States under an agreement to release political prisoners. Similarly, authorities prevented the former director of the Miss Nicaragua contest, Karen Celebertti, from reentering the country after August 2023 title-winner Sheynnis Palacios, who had participated in 2018 antigovernment demonstrations, was also crowned Miss Universe in December 2023. Celebertti’s husband and son were simultaneously detained for over 40 days on charges of “conspiracy” and “financing terrorism” before being expelled in January. The sudden “civil death” experienced by these exiled activists and their family members undermines their connections to their homeland and community.

Host-state considerations: As the Ortega regime traps an increasing number of people in a position of de facto statelessness abroad and intimidates their relatives in Nicaragua, host states must consider steps to ameliorate the situation for vulnerable individuals. For example, after the government stripped the aforementioned 316 Nicaraguans of their citizenship, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Spain all offered them protection or nationality. Likewise, Nicaraguans who have fled the country of their own accord must be granted a fair immigration process. The Costa Rican government has become less receptive to Nicaraguan asylum seekers, leaving some particularly exposed to deportations or violent attacks. Finally, given the continued targeting of exiles’ relatives, host governments should seek to facilitate family reunification