Since 2018, hundreds of women in Nicaragua have endured persecution, imprisonment, and forced exile under the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Stories like those of Mayela Campos, Vlada Krassova Torres, and Brisa Bucardo illustrate how political violence affects dissenters, activists, and rights defenders in varied ways. Experts highlight the lasting impacts on their mental health and the challenges of rebuilding lives abroad.
Nicaragua's sociopolitical crisis, starting in April 2018, has led to sustained state repression against critical voices, with at least 1,485 people recognized as political prisoners since then, according to human rights organizations. Women have faced a broad array of violences, including surveillance, threats, assaults, exile, forced displacement, denationalization, confiscations, and forced disappearances, as explained by sociologist Elvira Cuadra, director of the Center for Transdisciplinary Studies of Central America (Cetcam).
Mayela Campos, 31, a former student at the National Engineering University (UNI) in Managua, left her studies in 2018 due to threats from groups linked to the National Union of Students of Nicaragua (UNEN). She received severe intimidations, such as 'We're going to rape you and kill you', leading to exile in 2019. Upon return, she was kidnapped on August 21, 2023, by police, tried in a sham process, and sentenced to eight years for alleged drug trafficking. She spent 381 days in prison before release and banishment to Guatemala on September 5, 2024, with 134 others. In May 2025, she settled in Spain but suffers panic attacks, insomnia, and post-traumatic stress. 'My brain doesn't process things the same way it used to', she says.
Vlada Krassova Torres, a trans activist, saw persecution intensify during the 2018 protests, with harassment from Sandinista Youth. After a violent incident against a colleague, she was taken to a safe house and exiled to Costa Rica on August 18, 2018. In November 2025, she arrived in Spain with 244 other Nicaraguans via the National Resettlement Program. She faced barriers to gender identity recognition, waiting a month and a half for resolution. 'We are erased, ignored', she states about the lack of a gender identity law in Nicaragua.
Brisa Bucardo, a Miskitu journalist and Indigenous rights defender, faced threats from 2017 for denouncing violence against women and corruption in her territory. In May 2018, she fled to Honduras and then Costa Rica amid militarization in the Río Coco area. 'Exile never allows a normal life', she recounts, highlighting economic and emotional barriers as an Indigenous person in non-adapted host countries.
Cuadra emphasizes that there are no voluntary exiles; all are forced and part of a state policy of violence against women. The affected women rebuild networks abroad, dealing with depression and anxiety, while the regime continues attacks even outside the country.
