Over 30 Nicaraguans have been detained by local law enforcement for celebrating the capture of deposed Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, the newspaper La Prensa reported Friday.

The Nicaraguan communist regime led by “co-presidential” dictatorial couple Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has reportedly remained in a state of “alert” across all of the ruling FSLN party’s structures and ordered increased surveillance in Nicaraguan neighborhoods and on social media following the January 3 U.S. law enforcement action that resulted in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The Ortega regime joined other authoritarian and leftist allies of the now-deposed dictator in condemning the United States for capturing Maduro with a brief statement signed by the dictatorial couple, in which Ortega and Murillo joined Venezuela’s “acting President” Delcy Rodríguez in demanding the release of Maduro and Flores.

Since then, international outlets reported that the Ortega regime ordered Nicaraguan state workers to post messages of support for Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan socialist regime on their social media accounts under penalty of being considered “traitors.” At the same time, Ortega and Murillo ordered local police to detain anyone caught publishing messages in support of Maduro’s capture. La Prensa reported this week that a man identified as Zeledón Castro, a taxi driver in the city of Matagalpa, was detained on Sunday for expressing his opinion of Maduro’s capture on social media. The man reportedly underwent a preliminary hearing on Monday in which he was charged with alleged “cybercrimes.”

Unnamed sources confirmed to La Prensa that over 30 Nicaraguans have been detained since January 4 for expressing support of Maduro’s downfall, with most of the arrests having taken place in the capital city of Managua and in the towns of Tipitapa, Bluefields, Matagalpa, and Waslala.

La Prensa detailed that about 15 of all detainees were apprehended in Tipitapa from January 6 onwards and still remain detained. In Bluefields, at least seven individuals were reportedly arrested, including two unnamed healthcare workers were detained for several hours on January 7 “just for liking posts related to Maduro’s capture.” Although the two healthcare workers were released, officials told them that a “report” would be lodged on their respective personal records.

In the capital, Managua, La Prensa detailed that two named individuals are known to have been arrested, stressing that Nicaraguan families are abstaining from reporting cases out of fear.

“We know that there are many more detainees, but people do not report it out of fear. They fear that they will be prosecuted like the taxi driver from Matagalpa for cybercrimes, and others hope that they will be released, as in the case of Waslala, who was confirmed to have been released,” a source told La Prensa.

The source also warned La Prensa that people identified as relatives of exiled opposition figures or former members of civil society organizations are reporting increased police harassment outside their homes, staying outside their homes for up to 24 hours before leaving and returning at a later time.

“In others, they send people to try to extract information to see if those being monitored give any opinion regarding the capture of Nicolás Maduro,” the source said.

Despite the increased surveillance against Nicaraguans supportive of Maduro’s capture, and the forced orders to state workers to publish content supportive of the Venezuelan socialists on social media, the Nicaraguan outlet 100 Noticias reported on Thursday that Rosario Murillo abstained from mentioning Venezuela and Nicolás Maduro during her daily noon speech on Thursday.

The outlet pointed out that Murillo’s change in public posture coincides with reports detailing an “increased paranoia” in the Nicaraguan communist regime and suggestions from the Nicaraguan army to keep a “low profile” while law enforcement continues to arrest people supportive of the capture of Nicolás Maduro.

“The contrast is clear: outside Nicaragua, Maduro’s downfall has put Ortega and Murillo in an awkward position, forcing them to adjust their traditional rhetoric of solidarity with Caracas; inside, the official silence on Venezuela has been accompanied by increased surveillance on the streets and online, and the criminalization of expressions that challenge the government narrative,” 100% Noticias wrote.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.