Nicaragua’s Disappeared: A Humanitarian Crisis Ignored by the Left
By Hotspotnews
The United Nations has sounded the alarm on a grim reality in Nicaragua: over 120 people have been forcibly disappeared since 2018, victims of a brutal regime under President Daniel Ortega. These are not just numbers—they are human beings, snatched from their lives, subjected to arbitrary arrests, secret detentions, and, in some cases, torture or death. The UN’s recent report paints a chilling picture of a government using enforced disappearances as a weapon to crush dissent, silence opposition, and instill fear in its citizens. Yet, where is the outrage from the progressive left, so quick to champion human rights elsewhere?
Since the 2018 protests against Ortega’s socialist regime, which saw over 355 killed and thousands injured or exiled, Nicaragua has descended into a police state. Protesters, human rights defenders, and even ordinary citizens perceived as disloyal have vanished without a trace. Families are left in anguish, unable to report these crimes for fear of retaliation. The regime’s tactics are deliberate—arrests without warrants, incommunicado detentions, and zero cooperation with international inquiries. This is not governance; it is tyranny.
Conservatives have long warned about the dangers of unchecked socialist regimes, and Nicaragua is a textbook case. Ortega’s government, cloaked in the rhetoric of revolutionary justice, mirrors the oppressive playbook of other leftist strongmen. From Venezuela to Cuba, we see the same pattern: dissent is criminalized, freedoms are eroded, and human lives are sacrificed on the altar of ideological control. The UN’s call for accountability—demanding the release of detainees and independent investigations—has been met with silence from Managua. This is no surprise. Regimes like Ortega’s thrive on impunity.
What’s baffling is the selective silence from progressive circles. Where are the marches, the hashtags, the impassioned speeches from those who claim to stand for the oppressed? When human rights abuses occur under governments they ideologically oppose, the left is vocal. Yet, when the perpetrator is a self-proclaimed socialist, the response is often muted. This double standard betrays the very principles they profess to uphold.
Nicaragua’s crisis is a reminder of the cost of ignoring authoritarianism dressed in progressive rhetoric. The disappeared are not just a statistic—they are a call to action. Conservatives must continue to champion individual liberty and hold tyrants accountable, no matter their ideology. The UN’s report is a sobering wake-up call: freedom is fragile, and silence is complicity. Let’s not look away while Nicaragua’s people suffer.
source: Reuters
