This article analyses the evolution of Nicaragua’s political regime in the period 2020-2022 through the theoretical framework of democratic regression. After the 2018 protests, the regime, with an already dubious democratic quality, was faced with the choice of negotiating or repressing. It opted for the latter, and this decision has manifested in several dimensions. The passing of three laws has curtailed freedoms and created a framework for political and social repression. Several opposition leaders have been imprisoned, and the 2021 electoral process was neither competitive nor internationally endorsed. In foreign policy it has distanced from its regional environment and aligned itself with Russia. For all these reasons, the article argues that there has been an authoritarian closure in Nicaragua