Felix Maradiaga: Ending Arbitrary Detention — A Personal Journey from Injustice to Advocacy

2024 Fellow Spotlight Series — This talk was recorded for the Fisher Family Summer Fellows Program at Stanford University in 2024.

Mr. Felix Maradiaga is a Nicaraguan human rights advocate widely recognized as one of his country’s leading voices for democracy. He founded the Fundación Para la Libertad, an organization focused on developing democratic education and research programs that the Ortega regime declared illegal in 2022. In 2018, during widespread protests against the Ortega regime, he survived two assassination attempts and faced numerous criminal charges and smear campaigns. In 2021, after announcing plans for a presidential campaign, he was arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison. In February 2023, he and 221 other political prisoners were stripped of their citizenship by the Nicaraguan government and expelled to the United States.