Assembly Speaker: Juan Sebastián Chamorro

Juan Sebastián Chamorro is a Nicaraguan economist, businessman, and politician. He was a pre-candidate for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election until he was detained in a wave of arrests of opposition candidates and other civic leaders. He was released from prison and banished from Nicaragua in February 2023.

Chamorro is currently a Hewlett Visiting Fellow for Public Policy at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies of the University of Notre Dame. During his fellowship he is working on a project titled, "Violation of Every Right in Nicaragua, a Personal and Collective Perspective."

In 1997 Chamorro began his first public service role in Nicaragua, as director of agriculture policy at the Ministry of Agriculture. From 2002 to 2006, he served in the administration of then-President Enrique Bolaños as director general of the Millennium Challenge Account Nicaragua, deputy minister of finance and public credit, technical secretary of the presidency of the republic, and coordinator of the National Public Investment System. Most recently, Chamorro was executive director of the economic think tank Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUNIDES). He holds a PhD in agricultural and applied economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in economic development and econometrics, and a Master’s degree in economics from Georgetown University.