Nicaragua strips lawyers of certification in latest crackdown on dissent

Nicaragua's government has stripped hundreds, possibly thousands, of lawyers of their licenses to practice, a move described by a United Nations expert as a "purge of the legal profession." Critics view this as the latest assault on dissent by President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo's administration, further eroding the country's democratic institutions.

The revocations occurred without official notification, leaving lawyers bewildered as their credentials vanished from the Supreme Court of Justice's registry. Reed Brody, a human rights lawyer and UN panel member, noted this action aligns with a broader pattern of repression that began after mass protests in 2018. The government has since imprisoned adversaries, shuttered over 5,000 NGOs, and stripped hundreds of their citizenship.

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This follows the pattern that we’ve been seeing for years. First, they closed the NGOs, the universities, the independent media. You know, they’ve gone after the churches, and now it seems the legal profession. Anyone who might stand between the government and citizens.

Juan Diego Barberena, a lawyer and human rights defender exiled in Costa Rica, confirmed his own certification was revoked. He described the action as a method of "exercising totalitarian control over the legal profession," asserting that the government can now arbitrarily decide who is permitted to practice law.

This crackdown on the legal profession follows similar actions against other sectors, including universities, independent media, and churches. The government's strategy appears to be systematically eliminating any potential opposition or checks on its power, leaving citizens with fewer avenues for legal recourse or defense.

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This is a means of exercising totalitarian control over the legal profession. This means that the dictatorship can decide who gets to practise and who doesn’t.