‘Nervous’ government has cracked down on celebrations for Sheynnis Palacios in country where ‘repression is absolute’

When Sheynnis Palacios was recently voted Miss Universe, it came as a bolt of good news in Nicaragua. Joyous crowds took to the streets of Managua for the first time since mass protests in 2018 that were put down with lethal force.

The Nicaraguan regime, paranoid about any hint of dissidence, initially congratulated Palacios, but has since cracked down on celebrations – not least because Palacios herself took part in the 2018 demonstrations, and opponents of the regime have taken her up as a symbol of hope and defiance.

Arturo McFields Yescas spoke out against the government he is representing in a verbal attack that was lauded by the US

Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Organization of American States has launched an extraordinary verbal attack on the authoritarian government he is employed to represent, castigating Daniel Ortega’s “indefensible” dictatorship for its assault on human rights and democracy.

Arturo McFields Yescas spoke out during an online OAS session on Wednesday, in a startling declaration that spread quickly on social media and was commended by countries such as the US.

Hugo Torres, 73, was among 46 opposition figures jailed by Ortega last year to clear way for his re-election

A former Sandinista guerrilla who once led a raid that helped free Daniel Ortega from prison has died, eight months after the now-president jailed him and dozens of other Nicaraguan opposition leaders.

Government prosecutors said Hugo Torres, 73, died at a hospital in Managua, the capital, “of illnesses he had”. It was unclear if his death was hastened by conditions in prison, according to a statement by government prosecutors.

Former Sandinista rebel leader, who has governed since 2007, seeks unprecedented fourth term

Nicaragua’s authoritarian leaders, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, are poised to extend their rule over the crisis-hit Central America country with an election that opponents and much of the international community have denounced as a charade.

Ortega, the Sandinista rebel who led Nicaragua during the 1980s and has governed continuously since 2007, will seek an unprecedented fourth consecutive term in Sunday’s contest, which follows a ruthless six-month political crackdown on rivals.

Ex-foreign minister among those arrested as Ortega detains political rivals as well as a columnist and ‘election geek’

It has been a fortnight since Georgiana Aguirre-Sacasa last heard from her elderly father: a terse WhatsApp message in which Nicaragua’s former foreign minister said border guards had stopped him leaving the country and seized his passport, and that he was on his way home.

“What????” she replied from her home in Denver, Colorado. “Why????” No answer came.

By then Aguirre-Sacasa believes Nicaraguan police officials on motorcycles had intercepted her father’s vehicle on the highway as he headed back to the capital, Managua. After searching it, they placed the 76-year-old retired diplomat in a pickup truck and spirited him away to an unknown destination.

“We are in this nightmare,” his daughter said this week as she desperately sought news of her father. “Right now, I just need proof of life.”

Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa is the oldest target of a brazen political crackdown being waged by the government of Daniel Ortega ahead of the Central American country’s next presidential election on 7 November. Police have arrested at least 32 people since late May, including important opposition figures who were challenging the revolutionary hero-turned-autocrat as he seeks a a fourth consecutive term.

Related: Nicaragua rounds up president’s critics in sweeping pre-election crackdown

Crackdown continues as vice-presidential hopeful Berenice Quezada accused of ‘terrorism’ for criticising lack of freedom

Nicaraguan authorities have detained a candidate in the November presidential elections, her party has said, as the government of President Daniel Ortega shows no sign of ending a sweeping crackdown against the opposition.

For months Ortega’s government has been detaining political adversaries, including presidential hopefuls, ahead of an election in which the former Marxist guerrilla and cold war antagonist of Washington will be running for a fourth consecutive term.