United Nations human rights experts said Wednesday that Nicaragua’s co-presidents have established a dictatorship and that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed."

The expert group has been investigating allegations of human rights violations and abuses in Nicaragua , which the country’s government denies, since April 2018. The U.N. experts said they have documented actions by husband-and-wife leaders Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo aimed at eliminating opposition through arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, political persecution and stripping opponents of their citizenship.

“What we are looking at is a full dictatorship, and that dictatorship has one clear goal: permanent dynastic rule,” Jan-Michael Simon, chair of the group appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council , told U.N. reporters. “Four months ago, Daniel Ortega said it loud — Nicaragua will never hold elections again.…