Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar of Florida stated in a Monday social media post that «After Cuba, Nicaragua is next.» 

The Central American nation’s president, Daniel Ortega, said on Sunday, «There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,» according to Reuters. «The days when parties backed by the Yankees (United States) and the Somocistas would return to power are over – never again,» he said, according to the outlet.

In her Monday post on X, Salazar said, «Daniel Ortega just announced that Nicaragua will no longer hold elections. When a communist dictator knows the people would vote him out, he takes away their vote. Repression, fear, and force become the only way to stay in power. The Ortega-Murillo regime has declared war on the Nicaraguan people’s right to choose their own future.»

Ortega’s wife Rosario Murillo is co-president, reports indicate.

«The United States must stand unequivocally with the people of Nicaragua, increase the pressure on this despicable regime, and ensure that those responsible for its crimes are held accountable. After Cuba, Nicaragua is next,» Salazar added in the post.

NICARAGUA’S ORTEGA SAYS COUNTRY WILL ‘NEVER AGAIN’ HOLD ELECTIONS, SHUTTING OUT OPPOSITION 

The U.S. snatched Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and his wife out of Venezuela and transported them back to the U.S. earlier this year. 

The U.S. later launched a war against the Islamic Republic of Iran in conjunction with Israel.

And then during a speech in March, U.S. President Donald Trump said «Cuba’s next.»

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Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s president, during the 23rd States of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) Summit at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (Gaby Oraa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to Salazar’s office on Tuesday to ask more about her comment suggesting that «After Cuba, Nicaragua is next.»

The congresswoman said in a Tuesday post on X, «One by one, the dictators of the last era are answering for their crimes. Maduro sleeps in a cell in New York. The Ayatollah is dead. Raúl Castro is under indictment. Daniel Ortega, whose regime killed more than 300 peaceful protesters in 2018, jailed opposition candidates before elections, exiled priests, stripped hundreds of Nicaraguans of their citizenship, and has now abolished elections altogether, still sits in Managua. Communist dictators don’t fear losing elections. They fear having them. His day will come.» 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Tuesday statement, «Daniel Ortega’s declaration that under his family’s dictatorship Nicaragua will never again hold elections lays bare their true authoritarian nature. Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have abandoned even the pretense of popular consent.

CUBA BUILT COVERT NETWORK INSIDE AMERICA THROUGH SPIES, ACTIVISTS AND UNIVERSITIES, STATE DEPT ALLEGES

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio greets Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi ahead of their bilateral meeting at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., United States, on July 14, 2026. (Mehmet Eser/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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«The Nicaraguan people have the right to choose their own leaders through democratic elections. The United States calls on the international community to join forces to demonstrate to the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship that it cannot expect to maintain business as usual with other nations when it is thwarting the basic tenets of our democratic hemisphere,» Rubio asserted.

Defensa de su gestión

El libertario Abelardo de la Espriella asume su mandato el 7 de agosto en Colombia. Foto: EFE

El pulso con Estados Unidos

EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies to waive prior nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) for former government employees and contractors cooperating with unidentified anomalous phenomena investigations, Fox News Digital has learned.

«President Trump recently directed the Department of War and the intelligence community to allow former government employees or contractors, that have relevant information about the disclosure of UAP, to come forward to meet with designated government representatives — AARO or the President’s UAP taskforce, ‘PURSUE’ — and have their prior NDAs abrogated,» a senior administration official said, with AARO referring to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the Pentagon office established to investigate UFOs and other unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).

Another senior administration official emphasized the move was not a «declassification directive» and only allowed employees to come forward through government channels.

Officials say years of congressional inquiries, whistleblower allegations and newly declassified records have raised questions about whether additional witnesses have remained silent because they believed prior nondisclosure agreements prevented them from cooperating with government investigations.

NEW TRUMP UFO FILE DUMP INCLUDES MILITARY FOOTAGE OF MYSTERIOUS STAR-SHAPED OBJECT

FBI rendering of witness account of «orbs launching orbs» is pictured above (Department of War)

UFO WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS BILLIONS IN SECRET SPENDING HIDDEN FROM CONGRESS

«People who believe that they have information have expressed reluctance in coming forward,» the official said. «We are eliminating that source of reluctance.»

Like other government employees and defense contractors with access to classified information or sensitive national security programs, many witnesses would have signed nondisclosure agreements as a condition of receiving security clearances or access to restricted information. Those agreements generally prohibit unauthorized disclosure of classified or otherwise protected information and typically remain in effect even after an individual leaves government service.

Former officials and contractors who disclose protected information without authorization risk losing security clearances, facing civil penalties or, in some circumstances, criminal prosecution if classified information is improperly disclosed.

Under the new process, former government employees and contractors who believe they possess relevant UAP information would first meet with designated officials at the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) or the president’s UAP task force, PURSUE, who hold the appropriate security clearances. During those authorized discussions, any applicable nondisclosure agreements could be waived, allowing witnesses to share information without fear of violating prior agreements.

Information provided through the process would be reviewed through the administration’s existing declassification procedures.

«Any information that is received that sheds light on the UAP mystery will ultimately be made public,» the official said.

A screenshot of video footage from an alleged unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) sighting in the northeastern United States in July 2025, which was detailed in files released by the DOW and originally obtained by the FBI. (DOW/FBI)

The official said the administration does not know whether potential witnesses actually possess significant new information, but wants to remove any perceived legal barriers so investigators can determine whether previously undisclosed information exists.

«You don’t know what you don’t know,» the official said.

The official said the focus is on incidents that remain unexplained, rather than known foreign technology, classified U.S. programs or natural phenomena.

The latest directive builds on the Trump administration’s broader effort to declassify decades of government records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena. Previous releases have included FBI and Pentagon records describing unexplained sightings reported by military personnel, law enforcement and astronauts, including accounts of glowing «mother orbs» that witnesses said released smaller objects near a sensitive U.S. national security site, mysterious orange spheres observed during military operations, and Apollo-era transcripts in which astronauts described unexplained lights and «jagged, angular fragments» drifting outside their spacecraft.

The latest tranche of UAP records included expanded details and imagery from a 2015 incident involving an unidentified object over the Pantex nuclear weapons facility in Texas, along with newly declassified infrared footage showing a mysterious six-pointed star-shaped object tracked by a U.S. military sensor over the Yellow Sea on Jan. 1, 2025.

The official said the next tranche of files will be made available «very soon.»

The directive follows years of complaints from some lawmakers and whistleblowers that former officials with firsthand knowledge were reluctant to come forward because of secrecy obligations.

An artist’s rendering released by the U.S. Department of War depicting a 2023 sighting of «orbs launching other orbs» near a national security site in the western United States. (Department of War)

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, then the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in 2023 that multiple individuals with firsthand knowledge had approached the committee but were hesitant to speak publicly because of potential repercussions.

«Some of these people still work in the government and frankly, a lot of them are very fearful — fearful of their jobs, fearful of their clearances, fearful of their career, and some, frankly, are fearful of harm coming to them,» he said on News Nation in June 2023.

«Grant immunity to anyone who has already come forward, and everyone who will come forward. Open the door and let them speak,» Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., demanded during a June 9 press conference on Capitol Hill.

Public interest in UAPs accelerated in 2017 after The New York Times revealed the Pentagon had quietly operated a secret program to investigate unexplained aerial encounters and published Navy cockpit videos showing objects exhibiting unusual flight characteristics.

Since then, Congress has held multiple bipartisan hearings on the issue, lawmakers have pressed intelligence agencies for greater transparency and former intelligence officer David Grusch’s allegations that the government had concealed information about UAP programs renewed calls for additional disclosure, despite the government’s denial of his central claims.

During the same event, former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch renewed his allegations that secret UAP programs had operated outside normal congressional oversight, calling it «a real fraud, waste and abuse issue» and claiming his investigation uncovered «slush funds to the tune of billions of dollars per annum for these activities.»

The Pentagon has disputed Grusch’s central claims, and AARO has said its investigations found no verified evidence of extraterrestrial technology or credible evidence that the government has secretly recovered or reverse-engineered craft of non-human origin.