{"success":true,"data":{"id":"da1aa9ef-ee00-4774-b66c-cfae20801df6","title":"Nicaragua strips lawyers from practicing in ongoing crackdown on dissent","summary":"Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Not now Yes please US Edition Change Support Now × \"Clear search box\") Custom Search Sort by Relevance Date NewsNews World CupWorld Cup SportsSports CultureCulture LifestyleLifestyle MoneyMon...","content":"## Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent\n\nNotifications can be managed in browser preferences.\n\nNot now Yes please\n\nUS Edition Change\n\nSupport Now\n\n[×](javascript:void(0) \"Clear search box\")\n\nCustom Search\n\nSort by\n\nRelevance\n\nDate\n\n*   News[News](https://www.independent.co.uk/us)\n\n*   World Cup[World Cup](https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup)\n\n*   Sports[Sports](https://www.independent.co.uk/sport)\n\n*   Culture[Culture](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment)\n\n*   Lifestyle[Lifestyle](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style)\n\n*   Money[Money](https://www.independent.co.uk/us/money)\n\n*   Travel[Travel](https://www.independent.co.uk/us/travel)\n\n*   Premium[Premium](https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium)\n\nMore\n\nMore\n\n### Thank you for registering\n\nPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in\n\n# Nicaragua strips lawyers from practicing in ongoing crackdown on dissent\n\n## Nicaragua's government has stripped many lawyers of their licenses to practice, according to a United Nations expert\n\n[Megan Janetsky](https://www.independent.co.uk/author/megan-janetsky)Friday 10 July 2026 22:13 BST\n\n*   Copy link  \n*   Bookmark  \n\n## Bookmark popover\n\nRemoved from bookmarks\n\nClose popover\n\nNicaragua Lawyers Crackdown(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)\n\n### Your support helps us to tell the story\n\nFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.\n\nAt such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.\n\nThe Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.\n\n**Your support makes all the difference.**\n\n[Nicaragua](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/nicaragua)'s government has stripped masses of lawyers of their licenses to practice in recent days, in what a [United Nations](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/united-nations) expert described Friday as a “purge of the legal profession” aimed at eroding the country’s final shreds of democratic checks and balances.\n\nThe government of husband-and-wife copresidents, [Daniel Ortega](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/daniel-ortega) and Rosario Murillo, has been carrying out an all-out crackdown on dissent since mass social protests in 2018 that the government violently repressed.\n\nSince then, the government has imprisoned adversaries, religious leaders, journalists and others, forcing thousands to flee the country. It has stripped hundreds of their Nicaraguan citizenship and possessions. Since 2018, it has also shut down more than 5,000 organizations, largely religious groups, but also local rotary clubs and scouting organizations.\n\nIn recent days, lawyers noticed that their licenses to practice law in Nicaragua were removed without explanation from the Supreme Court of Justice’s registry, according to Reed Brody, an American human rights lawyer and member of a U.N. panel of experts on the [Central American](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/central-american) country, and other lawyers whose certifications were revoked.\n\nThere was no official notification by the government, and Nicaragua's government did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.\n\nBrody said the full scope was not immediately clear, but it “would certainly appear to be at least hundreds, if not thousands of lawyers.”\n\n“This follows the pattern that we’ve been seeing for years. First, they closed the [NGOs](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/ngos), the universities, the independent media, you know, they’ve gone after the churches, and now it seems the legal profession,” Brody said. “Anyone who might stand between the government and citizens.”\n\nBrody said he knew of at least 20 lawyers who had been affected.\n\nJuan Diego Barberena, a lawyer and human rights defender exiled in Costa Rica since 2022, was among those stripped of his official certification and said he knew of at least 25 more colleagues like him.\n\nOn Thursday, Barberena tried to access his legal accreditation on the government's database, and said his name and license number were wiped clean from the system.\n\n“This is a means of exercising totalitarian control over the legal profession,” Barberena said. “This means that the dictatorship can decide who gets to practice and who doesn’t.”\n\nThe move echoes other steps the government has taken in recent years. Many Nicaraguan exiles stripped of their citizenship and rendered “stateless” have reported similar stories of themselves or family members going to search for their birth certificates and other legal documents in official databases and being told they don't exist.\n\nBut Barberena and Brody said the move this week by authorities went a step further, noting that those erased from the system were not just dissenters. Some were simply Nicaraguans living abroad. Others practiced criminal or family law that didn't touch on politics, while some were government sympathizers, Barberena said.\n\nBrody framed it, rather, as a move to whittle away at any last remaining shred of independence in a judicial system already firmly under control of Ortega and Murillo.\n\n“On one hand, it's an arbitrary measure to punish political dissent,” Barberena said. “On the other, it's the dictatorship looking medium-term and wanting to prevent lawyers, experts, and academics from participating in the future of the country's institutions.”\n\nFollow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america\n\n### More about\n\n### Most popular\n\n### Popular videos\n\n### Bulletin","source_name":"The Independent","source_url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/nicaragua-mexico-city-united-nations-daniel-ortega-ngos-b3012973.html","url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/nicaragua-mexico-city-united-nations-daniel-ortega-ngos-b3012973.html","author":"Megan Janetsky","author_name":"Megan Janetsky","published_at":"2026-07-10T21:13:12.000Z","publication_date":"2026-07-10T21:13:12.000Z","image_url":"https://static.independent.co.uk/2026/07/10/22/Nicaragua_Lawyers_Crackdown_11_87.jpg","category":"world","topic":"world","tags":[],"political_bias":null,"bias_score":null,"confidence_score":null,"credibility_score":null,"factual_quality":null,"reading_time":5,"word_count":862,"view_count":0,"breaking":false,"breaking_news":false,"ai_analysis":null,"fact_check_status":"unverified","archive_status":"hot"}}