According to the Constitution, in order to enter into force, the reform must be debated and approved in a second term, which will begin on 9 January 2024. However, on 9 February 2023, the National Assembly approved Law No. 1145, also under the emergency procedure.28 This law implements the regressive reform, in breach of the provisions of the Constitution itself, as well as the international human rights obligations of the state of Nicaragua.29 These provisions on “loss of nationality” constitute a new attempt by the Ortega-Murillo regime to legitimise and give a semblance of legality to its official discourse.30 According to this discourse, people who have denounced the escalating repression and opposed the dictatorship are internal enemies,31 who have renounced their Nicaraguan nationality because they are serving the interference of foreign powers.32 With the enactment and selective application of these provisions, the arbitrary deprivation of nationality against these persons considered to be opponents was presented as a measure authorised by the Constitution and legislation. On 10 February 2023, the day after the approval of Law No. 1145, the first decisions to withdraw Nicaraguan nationality were announced, through which the regime rendered Nicaraguan nationals stateless. The President of the First Chamber of the Managua Court of Appeals, Octavio Ernesto Rothschuh Andino, publicly read out a decision of the Court ordering the withdrawal of Nicaraguan nationality from 222 exiled persons, in application of Law No. 1145.33 In an interview that day, the President of the National Assembly, Gustavo Porras Cortés, confirmed that the various institutions were working under the same order to carry out the exile and deprivation of nationality of this group of people.34 According to Porras Cortés, each institution had done its part, including the National Assembly, which was in charge of “guaranteeing that these people were not Nicaraguans, because they are traitors to the homeland”.35 On 10 February, the judiciary also deprived Bishop Rolando Álvarez Lagos of his Nicaraguan nationality. The Bishop Álvarez Lagos was arbitrarily detained in August 2022, after he publicly urged the police and paramilitaries to cease attacks on the church and its media.36 A day after the religious leader refused to be exiled,37 the second judge of the criminal district of Managua, Nadia Camila Tardencilla Rodríguez, sentenced him to 26 years in prison, declared him a “traitor to the homeland” and ordered the permanent suspension of his citizenship rights, and the loss of his nationality. These sanctions were imposed without charge or trial.38 On 15 February 2023, the President of the Managua Court of Appeals, Ernesto Leonel Rodríguez Mejía, publicly read out a decision handed down the same day. In it, first instance judges convicted 28. L  aw No. 1145, Ley Especial que Regula la Pérdida de la Nacionalidad Nicaragüense (Special Law regulating the loss of Nicaraguan nationality). 29. F  IDH/CENIDH, Nicaragua: New turn in the human rights crisis, February 2023, p. 3, available at: https://www.fidh.org/en/region/ americas/nicaragua/nicaragua-new-turn-in-the-human-rights-crisis: 30. F  IDH/CENIDH, Call for an International Mechanism against Impunity in Nicaragua, February 2022, p. 7, available at: https://www. fidh.org/en/region/americas/nicaragua/call-for-an-international-mechanism-against-impunity-in-nicaragua 31. Ibid. 32. T  his point is illustrated by Daniel Ortega’s speech in November 2021. Referring to the people deprived of their freedom on political grounds, he stated that they were serving “Yankee imperialism”, which is why “they should be taken there, to the United States, because they are not Nicaraguans, they stopped being Nicaraguans a long time ago, they have no homeland. They should be taken there, so that they can serve there as what they are, slaves of the Empire, traitors to the homeland”. For more information, see: El País, “La Casa Blanca prohíbe la entrada a EE UU de funcionarios del régimen de Nicaragua” (White House bans Nicaraguan regime officials from entering the US), 16 November 2021, available at: https://elpais.com/ internacional/2021-11-16/la-casa-blanca-prohibe-la-entrada-en-ee-uu-de-funcionarios-del-regimen-de-nicaragua.html 33. In this regard, the Judge stated that “in compliance with the decision issued at 9:40 on the morning of 9 February 2023, we have ordered the loss of Nicaraguan nationality of 222 people who were declared traitors to the homeland, in accordance with Law No. 1145, the special law regulating the loss of Nicaraguan nationality”. For more information, see: Canal 4 Nicaragua, Transmisión especial desde el Complejo Judicial de Managua (Special broadcast from the Judicial Complex in Managua), 10 February 2023, available at: https://www.facebook.com/Canal4nicaraguanoticias/videos/1371063433695771/ 34. G  HREN, Report of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, 2 March 2023, A/HRC/52/63, para. 107, unofficial translation available at: https://reliefweb.int/attachments/5139728f-d2c5-4a4d-a12b-6d739abd2c94/EN.pdf 35. C  anal 4 Nicaragua, Doctor Gustavo Porras en la Revista En Vivo con Alberto Mora (Dr. Gustavo Porras on En Vivo Review with Alberto Mora), 10 February 2023, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXW_HawQHvI 36. F  IDH/CENIDH, Nicaragua: New turn in the human rights crisis, February 2023, p. 9, available at: https://www.fidh.org/en/region/ americas/nicaragua/nicaragua-new-turn-in-the-human-rights-crisis 37. O  HCHR, Human Rights Situation in Nicaragua, Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 10 August 2023, A/HRC/54/60, para. 14. 38. Ibid. See also: Canal 4 Nicaragua. Transmisión especial desde el Complejo Judicial de Managua (Special broadcast from the Managua Judicial Complex), 10 February 2023, available at: https://www.facebook.com/Canal4nicaraguanoticias/ videos/1371063433695771/ 5 FIDH - Exile and civil death