Washington DC - Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged international partners on Wednesday to "stop business as usual" with Nicaragua after its legislature voted to ban opposition parties from elections, further cementing the autocratic rule of Daniel Ortega and his wife, co-president Rosario Murillo.

"Yesterday, Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega's captive National Assembly eroded the fiction of Nicaragua's democracy, again rewriting the nation's constitution to entrench their illegitimate dynasty and indefinitely deprive Nicaraguans of free and fair elections," Rubio said in a statement.

The reforms were given unanimous approval on Tuesday during a special outdoor session of the Central American nation's legislature, and are set to be formally ratified next year.

Under the measures, any member of the opposition involved in planning or carrying out a coup d'etat would be banned from running for office, and the presidential term would be further extended from six to seven years.

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The government describes mass 2018 protests, which were violently quelled, as attempts to overthrow Ortega.

Following the protests, thousands of Nicaraguans were exiled, including opposition leaders and activists, journalists, intellectuals and priests.

Ortega and Murillo, who became co-presidents in 2025 under a previous constitutional amendment, have since gained effective control of all levers of government.

"Dictatorships that deny the unalienable rights of their citizens should not enjoy the same economic or political benefits as governments committed to defending hemispheric peace and security," Rubio said in the statement.

"The United States urges international partners to immediately stop business as usual operations with this brutal dictatorship," he said.