Toggle open close Nicaragua has been locked in a turbulent political crisis since April 2018. After years of discontent with leftist authoritarian president Daniel Ortega’s growing authoritarianism, peaceful anti-government protests were violently repressed by the government and state-sponsored paramilitaries. Government-initiated violence catalyzed widespread demonstrations around the country, and while the worst of the violence is over, repression continues, forcing 70,000 Nicaraguans to flee to neighboring Costa Rica. The Trump Administration quickly responded to the violence with a series of robust targeted sanctions, yet the ongoing political crisis requires additional stakeholders. While neither an influential economic actor nor a military tactician, the former Marxist rebel turned president, Daniel Ortega, has turned Nicaragua into an authoritarian dynasty where international pariahs profit from the country’s strategic location in Central America’s isthmus. The number of Nicaraguans displaced due to the political turmoil could also grow with Ortega’s reckless mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. Facilitating Nicaragua’s return to democracy requires free and fair elections with mechanisms not controlled by the ruling party and reflective of the Nicaraguan people. In order to see these reforms, U.S. and international partners must depoliticize Nicaragua’s national electoral commission, broadening U.S. support beyond traditional civil society groups, and coordinate targeted sanctions with like-minded partners.