Ortega Cancels Nicaragua’s Elections
Daniel Ortega just announced that Nicaragua will never hold elections again — because he doesn’t like who might come to power if the people get to vote. Within a day, the U.S. State Department answered with a phrase that should stop you cold: the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship is “an enemy of humanity.” That is not ordinary diplomatic smack talk. It’s a term of art that goes back to ancient Rome — Cicero called pirates “communis hostis omnium,” the common enemy of all, and the lawyers later made it “hostis humani generis,” enemy of the human race. The label has a function: it strips a ruler of the protections of sovereignty. Borders and territorial rights are for civilized company.
America was practically founded on this doctrine. In 1786, Adams and Jefferson questioned Tripoli’s ambassador in London about why the Barbary states attacked nations that had never harmed them — and their report to Congress convinced Jefferson you don’t pay tribute to pirates, you build a navy. Ortega has watched this movie recently: Nicolás Maduro held an election, lost it on paper, and is now in a Brooklyn jail cell. Ortega’s regime has committed crimes against U.S. nationals — jailed Americans, a Texas ministry hit with $80 million in fines, American property seized — and canceling elections is his attempt to break the playbook that took down his patron. The problem: it hands Washington the same two clean arguments that just worked in Venezuela and are being prepared for Cuba.
I’m Eric Garland. I’ve spent 30 years in strategic intelligence practice, and I’m personally sanctioned by the Russian Federation for my work on Russian intelligence operations. On Game Theory Today I walk through the questions a professional analyst actually asks about the news, not the answers you’re handed.
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SOURCES
U.S. Department of State — “The Murillo-Ortega dictatorship… an enemy of humanity” (statement, Sec. Rubio) — July 21, 2026
Reuters — “Ortega says Nicaragua will no longer hold elections” — July 20, 2026
Cicero — De Officiis (c. 44 BC) — the pirate as “communis hostis omnium”
Blackstone — Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book IV (1769) — “hostis humani generis”
Adams & Jefferson to John Jay — March 28, 1786 — Founders Online, National Archives
U.S. Dept. of War / PBS — capture & detention of Nicolás Maduro, Brooklyn MDC — January 2026
ADF International / CBN — Mountain Gateway case: pastors jailed, ~$80M fines, U.S. founders charged in absentia — 2023–24
U.S. Embassy Managua — property-confiscation warning to U.S. citizens — August 21, 2025
