The sight of members of the Citizen Power Councils (CPCs)—the repressive and political surveillance structure of the Sandinista Front in neighborhoods—accompanying National Police officers is becoming increasingly common in Nicaragua.
After Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime activated a new surveillance structure last year, Sandinista party militants have coordinated with the National Police, becoming the front line of repression in neighborhoods.
At least three sources (opponents and critics of the Ortega-Murillo regime) interviewed for this article confirmed that the harassment against them in recent months began with members of the CPCs in their respective neighborhoods.
The coordination between the National Police and the CPCs and Family Cabinets is not new in the police state imposed in Nicaragua. However, on November 7, 2023, during the first Citizen Security Congress, which included figures from the closest circle of the ruling couple, the involvement of Sandinista militants in the security apparatus became even clearer.
Recibe nuestro boletín semanal
“They talked, of course, about staying vigilant, connected, and coordinated, as it should be, to defend and safeguard peace,” said Rosario Murillo about this congress on November 8, 2023.
Meanwhile, the Police confirmed that with this strategy, the police model “is organized from individuals, families, and communities with coordination, articulation, and communication with political secretaries and the electoral network to contribute to peace, stability, and security.”
CPCs in direct line with the regime’s police
Critics and opponents describe how the harassment against them started with a visit from CPC members to their homes to ask for personal information (full name, age, employment status).
Subsequently, police officers conducted searches or intimidation at the same homes, armed with more detailed information. “The CPCs meet every week, they communicate more with each other, and they have a direct line to the Police,” said a Sandinista militant who spoke on condition of anonymity because they disagree with the situation.
The new coordination of the CPCs within the repression structure began with visits from the National Police, called “human and citizen security meetings,” which started in August of last year. Initially understood as door-to-door visits, these meetings eventually took place in a single house in each neighborhood, where neighbors were invited by CPC coordinators, according to DIVERGENTES.
The Police reported an average of 56 meetings per day across the country between August and November of last year. Since then, no further information about these operations has been disclosed.
Representatives of the Sandinista Front in the neighborhoods extended invitations to houses known to have Sandinista militants. However, the meetings were led by police commissioners, who were accompanied by several officers. At the end of the meetings, they shouted, “Long live Commander Daniel Ortega!”
The CPCs and Family Cabinets were structured in 2007 with the aim of distributing social programs and performing proselytizing tasks. But since April 2018, when the sociopolitical crisis erupted in Nicaragua, they began operating as a political espionage apparatus.
Since then, thousands of Sandinista militants across the country have carried out covert surveillance. Their protocol involved espionage, where they informed the Police, and officers acted by conducting searches and harassing opponents.
Now, CPCs meet in neighborhoods, walk, and work with police officers in broad daylight and with their faces uncovered.
Identify, monitor, and report
The Sandinista militant said that one of the tasks of the CPCs “is to identify opponents in the neighborhoods, monitor them, and report to the police.”
Additionally, they are called by the police to cross-check lists of critics to find out whether members of those families are in the country or what activities they are engaged in.
“They are assigned to watch or monitor several people, or just one person. Generally, it’s the closest neighbors who are watching,” said the source. “This surveillance used to be carried out by the police, but now it’s done by the CPCs,” they added.
CPC surveillance sometimes turns violent
A former political prisoner from a northern municipality, now in exile, said the harassment against him intensified precisely after the police visits in the neighborhoods last year. “They came to the neighborhood, met, and weeks later, two men on motorcycles intercepted and beat me; they didn’t steal anything,” said this opponent.
Later, days after the beating, a police officer came to his house to tell him that he was being monitored by Police Intelligence. Twice a month, he had to report via phone call and send the officer a photo and location via WhatsApp of where he was at that moment.
“The police officer told me that if I didn’t answer the call, they would come looking for me to put me in jail,” said the opponent, now in the United States, where he sought refuge from this harassment, but who still fears giving his name because his family remains in Nicaragua.
“I had a neighbor who was watching me. I knew it was him because when there was an important date (the anniversary of the April Rebellion, Sandinista celebrations in July, or Christmas in December), patrol cars would park near my house to watch me, and they would go to his (the neighbor’s) house to talk and meet,” said the former political prisoner.
This behavior is part of the strict control imposed by the Ortega-Murillo regime’s police state since late 2018, when it stopped the rebellion that began in April of that year with violence.
First, physical protests were banned, and later, even virtual spaces were censored through imprisonment and exile. Currently, in Nicaragua, there is no space for opposition without it resulting in arrests, threats, harassment, and intimidation.
Political surveillance extends beyond opponents
The collaboration with the Police has empowered Sandinista neighborhood leaders beyond just monitoring opponents. Two cases uncovered by DIVERGENTES show the capabilities acquired by the CPCs, with neither case having any political connection.
One involves the arrest of a Managua resident following a non-political argument with the Sandinista coordinator in his neighborhood. “The day after the argument, a police truck showed up at his house. An officer asked for his name and took him away,” said a relative of the arrested individual.
The man’s wife was told he would be taken to Police Station VI. But when she arrived, they told her he was at Station III. However, that station also provided no information. He was released three weeks later.
“At first, they said they were going to charge him with drug trafficking, but he was never brought to court; there was no case, they just released him. We never saw him during those three weeks,” said the relative.
The other case involves a woman who, in June of this year, painted her house with blue walls and white railings. “I painted it a dark blue because I liked the color, but once we finished painting, the house looked like the Nicaraguan flag, and I got worried,” said the woman.
In 2018, the blue and white colors of the Nicaraguan flag became symbols of the self-organized movement against Ortega-Murillo. The Police then arrested citizens who carried the flag and persecuted people who sold them. Videos also circulated showing police officers popping blue and white balloons thrown into the streets as acts of protest.
The CPCs approached this woman’s house the same day she painted it blue and white, to tell her that it was “dangerous for the house to be painted that way because the police could show up.” The woman, full of fear, was forced to buy gallons of paint in another color the next day to change the blue tone and avoid problems with the Police. This is the new reality imposed by the dictatorship in Nicaragua’s neighborhoods.