PARIS – UNESCO revealed on Sunday that Nicaragua has opted out of the United Nations’ cultural and educational organization. This decision follows the presentation of a UNESCO award that highlights press freedom to the Nicaraguan newspaper, La Prensa.

UNESCO’s director general, Audrey Azoulay, shared that she received an official letter from the Nicaraguan authorities on Sunday morning, stating their withdrawal due to the awarding of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

“I am saddened by this choice, as it will deny the Nicaraguan people the advantages of collaboration, especially in education and culture. UNESCO remains committed to promoting the right to free expression and press freedom globally,” Azoulay expressed in a statement.

Nicaragua was one of 194 member states in the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO members set up the press freedom prize in 1997, and the 2025 award was attributed Saturday to La Prensa on the recommendation of an international jury of media professionals.

La Prensa was founded almost a century ago, in 1926, UNESCO noted.

It said that “since 2021, following the imprisonment and expulsion of its leaders from the country as well as the confiscation of its assets, La Prensa has continued to inform the Nicaraguan population online, with most of its team in exile and operating from Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico, Germany and the United States.”

In announcing their UNESCO withdrawal, Nicaraguan authorities accused La Prensa of promoting “military and political interventions by the United States in Nicaragua” and denounced the award of the prize as the “diabolical expression of a traitorous anti-patriotic sentiment,” UNESCO said.

Nicaragua’s angry departure is a blow for the organization that is also in the crosshairs of U.S. President Donald Trump.

In an executive order in February, Trump called for a review of American involvement in UNESCO. In his first term as president, the Trump administration in 2017 announced that the U.S. would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision took effect a year later.

The United States formally rejoined UNESCO in 2023 after a five-year absence, under the presidency of Joe Biden.