Nicaragua detainee’s family demands proof of life

Relatives of retired Nicaraguan colonel Carlos Brenes and his wife, Salvadora Martinez, demanded that the government provide information about their whereabouts and health a year after they were detained.

Brenes, 71, and Martinez, 68, were arrested on August 15, 2025, the former officer's daughter Thelma Brenes said. “They have a duty to tell us where they are, how they are, and to return them alive,” she said from exile.

Human rights organizations and relatives of detainees say Nicaragua had 60 political prisoners as of late July, including 23 cases of forced disappearance. They say 15 of the detainees are elderly.

Thelma Brenes said her father, who was imprisoned between 2018 and 2019 and released under an amnesty, has diabetes, hypertension and mobility problems. She accused prison authorities of failing to provide political prisoners with proper medical care and said Nicaragua had a pattern of detaining relatives of opposition members.

Co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have increased control over Nicaraguan society since anti-government protests in 2018. A crackdown on those demonstrations left more than 300 people dead, according to the United Nations, and thousands have fled the country in the past eight years.

Opposition figures claim Murillo is carrying out an internal purge in state institutions in anticipation of Ortega's eventual death. The government is also pursuing proposed constitutional changes that would exclude opposition parties from elections and extend Ortega's term. The reforms are due to be voted on in early September.