MEXICO CITY (AP) — A panel of U.N.-backed human rights experts on Thursday accused Nicaragua ’s government of systematic human rights abuses “tantamount to crimes against humanity,” implicating a range of high-ranking officials in the government of President Daniel Ortega.

The allegations follow an investigation into the country’s expanding crackdown on political dissent. The Ortega government has gone after opponents for years, but it hit a turning point with mass protests against the government in 2018 that resulted in violent repression by authorities.

In the past year, repression has expanded to large swaths of society with a focus on “incapacitating any kind of opposition in the long term,” according to the independent group of U.N. experts investigating the issue since March 2022.