LatinNews Daily - 13 July 2026

Nicaragua: On 7 July the US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs demanded the immediate release of Steadman Fagoth Müller, a Miskito indigenous leader and former presidential adviser detained in Nicaragua since September 2024. In a statement posted on social media, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs described Müller as “a former political official dedicated to defending Nicaragua’s autonomous lands from FSLN [the ruling Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional] greed and corruption. He is an elderly man unjustly punished for speaking up.” It also said that “now, after nearly two years of enforced disappearance and unimaginable conditions, the dictatorship has released photos of a staged ‘family visit.’” Images of Müller were released by the dictatorship of co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo on 14 June, according to reports by independent media such as Costa Rica-based Nicaraguan investigative outlet Confidencial, in which Müller is seen at La Modelo prison, on the outskirts of the capital Managua. The statement drew parallels between Müller’s case and that of Miskito indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera, who died in the custody of the dictatorship on 31 May, shortly after authorities had released photos of him, with the US social media post asking: “Is this what we are to expect again?” Though Müller had spent years in opposition to the FSLN throughout the 1980s, he later became allied to the party and had held various government positions since Ortega’s return to power in 2007. In 2017, he was appointed as presidential adviser on policies toward indigenous peoples. On 16 August 2024, just a month before his detention, Müller’s post was officially ratified by the government in a reorganisation of state apparatus spearheaded by Murillo. Müller’s arrest came on 14 September 2024, when approximately 50 army officers descended on Waspán municipality, in the indigenous North Atlantic autonomous region (Raan) on the impoverished Caribbean coast. This took place just a day after Müller had summoned indigenous leaders to a meeting to discuss the invasion of their territories, including the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve.

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