Nicaraguan families demand answers as critics disappear into state custody

Retired Army Colonel Carlos Brenen and his wife Salvadora Martinez disappeared from their rural home near Managua in August 2025 after neighbors observed police escorting them away. Their daughter Thelma, residing in the Netherlands, has repeatedly asked Nicaraguan authorities for any information, but the Interior Ministry, Attorney General's Office and the army have not replied. Brenen, a former Sandinista fighter who later opposed President Daniel Ortega, is among at least 31 people listed as victims of enforced disappearance, according to exile-based human-rights groups.

UN experts have verified 161 disappearance cases since 2018 and noted eight deaths of political detainees in custody. The government has dismissed such accusations and offered no justification for the detentions. The pattern, described by UN experts as a deliberate tactic to spread fear, mirrors past repression in other Latin American dictatorships.