In April 2018, protests erupted in Nicaragua over social security reforms. President Daniel Ortega's government responded with lethal force; the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) documented 355 killed. Ortega expelled human rights organizations, cancelled the 2021 elections, arrested presidential candidates, stripped citizenship from hundreds of dissidents, and expelled the Catholic Church's representatives. Nicaragua has been described by the IACHR as a civic space fully closed.