LatinNews Daily - 07 November 2025

*A new telecommunications law, approved a year ago by Nicaragua’s legislature, has taken effect. The authoritarian government led by co-presidents Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, claims that the new law, which replaces legislation dating back to 1995, is necessary to establish “a modern regulatory framework” for telecommunications services (cell phones and landlines), internet, radiobroadcasting, and other related services. However, critics have raised concerns that it will provide an additional tool for the government in its crackdown on dissent which has been taking place since 2018 and has included the shuttering of independent media. Of particular concern is an article (109) which obligates telecoms companies to provide information on their users to the national telecoms institute Telcor, which is headed up by an Ortega ally, Nahima Janett Díaz Flores, who has been blacklisted by the US. Local journalists’ network Periodistas y Comunicadores Independientes de Nicaragua (PCIN) has also warned that it authorises Telcor to adjust at its discretion the costs of access and inter-connection for communication networks. In a statement released at the time of the legislative bill’s approval, PCIN said that the new law establishes a “series of measures regarding the suspension of licences and authorisations which could be used to silence media and independent voices”.

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