Julie Cupples, on LAB’s behalf, interviewed former Nicaraguan political prisoner Irving Larios Sánchez who was hosted in Scotland in April 2026 by Scottish Friends of Nicaragua.

In the 1970s, Irving Larios Sánchez, became a student leader in opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua.  During the revolution in the 1980s and 90s, he was in charge of the Latin American section of the Sandinista National Liberation Front’s (FSLN) International Affairs Department. In 1994, he broke with the FSLN due to political differences with Daniel Ortega’s leadership. In 2018, following the social uprising against the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, he publicly denounced the regime’s human rights violations. As a result, in 2021 he was arrested and falsely convicted of undermining national sovereignty. He spent 507 days in prison. On 9 February 2023, Irving was one of 222 political prisoners that were deported to the United States and stripped of their citizenship. He currently lives in exile in Spain.

Julie Cupples: What is left today of the Sandinista Revolution of the 1970s and 80?

Irving Larios Sánchez: Virtually nothing is left, except perhaps the dreams of my generation, the people who overthrew the Somoza dictatorship, and the dreams of thousands of Sandinista supporters around the world who supported the solidarity movement convinced that they were part of an alternative political project. None of that remains now. It’s all been dismantled. The country is economically dependent on the United States. Almost half of Nicaragua’s exports go to the United States and a third of Nicaragua’s GDP is made up of remittances from the United States. In addition, a tenth of the national territory has been handed over to Chinese companies to plunder the minerals, particularly gold, and other resources such as timber.

JC: How did this transformation unfold?

ILS: In the 1970s, Daniel and his brother Humberto began talks with a sector of the conservative oligarchy, establishing agreements that helped them to carry out high profile actions against the dictatorship such as the assault on the National Palace in 1978. Following the triumph of the revolution, a gradual process to concentrate power within the Ortega family began. After the Sandinista electoral defeat in 1990, they renewed their problematic relationship with the oligarchy and worked tirelessly for a return to power, not as a Sandinista project, but as an Orteguista one, with Daniel as leader, funded first by Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and later by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. In 1993, some prominent Sandinistas who were concerned about Ortega’s authoritarian leadership and corruption broke away and formed the MRS.  But some of us remained, believing we could still rebuild the historical project. But in response we were on the receiving end of expulsions, harassment, and persecution. Some of us have been imprisoned; I was kidnapped on 20 September 2021, simply for being a critic of the dictatorial and repressive actions of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship. The transformation process has been a long term one, but since 2018 at least 10 per cent of the Nicaraguan population has been forced into exile, and many of us have been stripped of our citizenship and our assets without due process. The revolutionary dream turned into a nightmare, in which Ortega-Murillo dictate legal, political, economic, and social norms at will.

JC: What kind of support for Ortega still exists? Is there more support in the rural areas where Sandinismo was once very strong?

ILS: Well, all reliable statistics from recent years indicate that Ortega can count on the support of at most 10% of the population. It’s hardly surprising, his government established a reign of terror and in 2018 committed massacres, for which it has been condemned by many organizations. There is no longer any freedom of information. Nicaragua’s most important journalists are all in exile and more than 5,000 NGOs and civil society organizations have been closed down and silenced.

JC: There is still some support for Daniel Ortega and the Nicaraguan government here in the UK. Why do you think that is?

ILS: To some extent, I can understand these people. They believe perhaps that there is still a revolution. Ortega has been governing directly or indirectly for nearly 50 years, and he knows how to do politics. Financial support from Venezuela enabled him to buy influence. It’s possible some of these funds have gone into solidarity organizations that like to send young people to do political tourism in Nicaragua, to celebrate the revolution on 19 July. Others might be engaged in business dealings with them. I can’t find any other reason for anyone to support such a corrupt, violent and criminal regime.

ILS: The Nicaraguan government and its supporters point out that Nicaragua does not experience the drug-related violence that we see in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

JC: It’s true in Nicaragua we don’t seem the same levels of drug-related violence that we see in Mexico or other Central American countries. But that’s because in Nicaragua drug trafficking is completely controlled by the state. Nicaragua is a drug trafficking hub but one that operates with complete impunity. Cocaine from Nicaragua has been seized in Russia and the United Kingdom. The DEA withdrew from Nicaragua last August because the government wasn’t cooperating to stop drug trafficking.

ILS: What is the position of Daniel Ortega’s government regarding Trump in the United States, and what is its position regarding the invasion of Venezuela and the capture of Maduro?

For 13 days after the abduction of Maduro, they didn’t utter a single word. That tells you a lot about how opportunistic they are. Eventually they spouted their traditional anti-imperialist rhetoric but didn’t say a word about Trump. This is how they maintain the support of their shrinking base. But beyond that, there’s no real confrontation; the contradiction lies in the rhetoric, but in practice, Ortega is an ally of the United States. Ortega operates just like Delcy Rodríguez, except Ortega has been doing it for years. And that’s a model Trump likes.

JC: What are the expectations for Nicaragua in the future?

ILS: There is pressure from the United States to carry out a series of democratizing measures – to release the remaining political prisoners, to end the repression of the Catholic Church, to facilitate fair and transparent elections, and to allow exiled Nicaraguans to go home. Some of these things are starting to happen, although the repression hasn’t ceased. But they have released prisoners, not all of them, but a good number. They have begun to return some confiscated properties belonging to US Americans. They have started allowing some exiles to return. Ortega-Murillo constituted themselves as co-presidents without being elected and also postponed the elections by one year, until 2027. So 2027 is going to be very important. If we have free and fair elections, the regime should come to an end and enable the election of a transitional government that can restore democracy in the country.

Main image: The popular insurrection of 2018. Photo Mónica Baltodano, Confidencial