Nicaraguan journalists in exile face threats, group says

Nicaraguan journalists living in exile face surveillance, death threats and harassment of relatives still inside Nicaragua, the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy said in a report released Wednesday in Costa Rica.

FLED said at least 310 Nicaraguan journalists are in exile, most of them after leaving in 2018 when Managua quashed protests against President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who was then vice president. The unrest left about 300 people dead.

The press freedom group said relatives of exiled reporters in Nicaragua had been interrogated over suspicions that they were sending information to news outlets abroad.

FLED also said Costa Rican authorities warned several exiled Nicaraguan journalists in the second trimester of 2026 that they faced grave threats, which the group described as transnational repression. It said exiled journalists had been placed under surveillance in Costa Rica and that one journalist fled after receiving death threats.

Between April and June, the United States deported two Nicaraguan journalists to Costa Rica, leaving them defenseless, according to FLED.

In March, UN investigators said hundreds if not thousands of exiled Nicaraguans were being targeted by Managua as repression also rose inside Nicaragua. The investigators blamed Ortega, Murillo and other top officials for serious, systematic and widespread human rights violations.