Nicaragua detains dozens for celebrating the arrest of a Venezuelan opposition leader

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Nicaraguan authorities have arrested at least 60 people for allegedly celebrating or expressing support for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a human rights monitoring group and local media reported Friday.

The crackdown follows the arrest of Maduro by the U.S. military in Caracas last Saturday. Maduro was transported to New York to face trial on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is a staunch ally of the embattled Venezuelan leader.

The NGO Blue and White Monitoring reported that 49 of those detained remain in custody with no information regarding their legal status. The group stated that the arrests were carried out without warrants and were based on social media posts or participation in private celebrations.

The arrests come a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he canceled a second military strike on Venezuela because Caracas cooperated on oil infrastructure and released political prisoners. However, Trump maintained that the U.S. naval fleet will remain in the Caribbean.

The detention of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has triggered a seismic geopolitical realignment across Latin America, sending a clear shockwave to Managua. For the Daniel Ortega administration, a longtime ideological twin of the Maduro regime, the development is being treated as an existential threat. The Nicaraguan government’s decision to arrest citizens celebrating Maduro’s downfall is more than a display of regional solidarity; it is a calculated act of domestic deterrence.

For Ortega—whose own administration is currently tethered by U.S. sanctions and systemic allegations of human rights abuses—Maduro’s fate serves as a grim harbinger. The intensified crackdown on domestic dissent is a transparent attempt to neutralize an emboldened opposition that may see the Venezuelan transition as a blueprint for change. In this context, the Nicaraguan government’s nationwide "security alert" functions as a convenient pretext for heightened surveillance and the further erosion of civil liberties.

On the diplomatic front, President Trump’s decision to abort a secondary wave of strikes epitomizes his signature "carrot-and-stick" doctrine. By projecting overwhelming military force before offering a conditional off-ramp—conceding de-escalation in exchange for cooperation on energy interests and oil production—the White House is signaling a high-stakes transactionalism. The message is aimed not only at the emerging leadership in Caracas but at global adversaries: while challenges to American interests will be met with force, the administration remains willing to trade leniency for strategic alignment.

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