Felix Maradiaga

About Maradiaga

Currently, Maradiaga serves as President of the Foundation for the Freedom of Nicaragua and as a Trustee at Freedom House, a leading organization dedicated to the global promotion of freedom. He also chairs the Latin American Liberal Network (Red Liberal de América Latina), one of the largest networks of pro-democracy parties and think tanks across Latin America. Additionally, he leads the World Leadership Council Academy (WLC-Academy), an initiative empowering activists to bring democratic change to some of the most repressive regimes worldwide.

In 2024, he served as a Senior Leadership Fellow at the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom at Florida International University, where he taught and engaged with students on the challenges of democracy and economic freedom in Latin America.

From 1997 to 2003, Maradiaga led Nicaragua’s National Strategy for Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR), working to reintegrate former combatants in a country deeply scarred by civil war. His leadership in this effort contributed to reducing armed violence and addressing post-conflict instability. In 2004, he became the youngest person in Nicaraguan history to serve as Secretary General of the Ministry of Defense during the administration of President Enrique Bolaños, where he played a key role in modernizing Nicaragua’s security and defense policy.

For the past 17 years, Maradiaga has been at the forefront of documenting grave human rights violations committed by the Daniel Ortega regime. He has persistently denounced extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, political persecution, and the systematic dismantling of civil society. His work has been instrumental in presenting cases before the United Nations Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and other key international forums, ensuring that Nicaragua’s crisis remains a global priority.

Before entering politics in 2015, Forbes Magazine listed him among the most influential Central American leaders. In 2009, the World Economic Forum in Davos recognized him as a Young Global Leader for his global work on nonviolence. He is also a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute, where he engages with a global community of changemakers dedicated to advancing leadership for the common good.

Maradiaga has authored or co-authored nine books, including the Central American editions of Economic Freedom (2014 and 2016), and has written over a hundred articles and essays on the decline of democracy in Latin America and the alliance of autocratic regimes worldwide. He also initiated the international campaign EndArbitraryDetention.org, focusing on the plight of political detainees globally.

In 2023, he received the Sergei Magnitsky Award for Outstanding Democratic Opposition in London, acknowledging his anti-corruption efforts. That same year, he earned the Geneva Summit Courage Award and was nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

Félix holds an MPA with honors from the Harvard Kennedy School, a BA in Political Science (Summa Cum Laude), and further graduate studies from the University of Barcelona (M.Eng.). He was also named a Yale World Fellow in 2008.

Despite facing numerous criminal charges, two assassination attempts, imprisonment under inhumane conditions in a maximum-security prison in Nicaragua, and exile after announcing his presidential run in 2021, Maradiaga remains a tireless global advocate for democracy and freedom. He is currently a Professor of the Practice of Democracy at the University of Virginia and has served as Visiting Faculty at Johns Hopkins University and many other prestigious universities around the world.