# Repression shifted toward mass criminalization of opponents

Date: 2018

After the roadblocks were dismantled, IACHR monitoring identified a third stage characterized by selective and large-scale persecution and criminalization of demonstrators, students, social leaders, human-rights defenders and government opponents. The Commission also documented serious due-process problems and treatment concerns for detainees. Human Rights Watch later reported prosecutions marred by serious due-process violations and documented torture and ill-treatment allegations. [Organization of American States](https://oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2018/273.asp?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

## Drivers

- Ortega–Murillo family autocracy: https://factrail.ai/drivers/ortega-family-autocracy

## Sources

- https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/06/19/crackdown-nicaragua/torture-ill-treatment-and-prosecutions-protesters-and
- https://oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2018/273.asp

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/mass-criminalization-phase-august-2018