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The U.S. Department of State denounced on Wednesday the illegitimacy of the Nicaraguan regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, accusing them of establishing a "co-presidency" to consolidate their absolute control over the country.
The message, posted on the official Department of State account, recalled that “a year ago, Rosario Murillo invented a co-presidency to cement her illegitimate control over Nicaragua: without elections, without mandate, without legitimacy.”
The statement comes at a time of increasing pressure from Washington on the authoritarian regimes in Latin America, following the military operation on January 3, during which U.S. special forces captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas, marking a turning point in the regional policy driven by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio, who had previously denounced the "family dictatorship" of Ortega and Murillo during his time as a senator, reiterated that "power based on repression and constitutional manipulation does not represent the will of the Nicaraguan people."
The head of U.S. diplomacy asserted that the Trump administration “will not recognize illegitimate governments that are sustained by fear and censorship.”
Since February 2025, Ortega and Murillo formally share the leadership of the Nicaraguan state, following a constitutional reform that created the position of co-presidency and granted the couple direct control over the Army and the country's institutions.
Analysts and human rights organizations believe that the Nicaraguan model replicates the power structure of the Cuban regime, which is based on military control and political repression.
With the fall of Maduro and the increasing isolation of Havana, Nicaragua is becoming the last bastion of authoritarianism on the continent. Until this Friday, when Washington turned its periscope towards Managua and splashed the Ortega and Murillo regime with the waves of its Caribbean military operation Southern Spear.
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