(AI translated) Félix Maradiaga was born in Jinotega on 23 September 1976. Between 1997 and 2001, he was director of the Office for the Reintegration of Ex-Combatants, contributing to the efforts to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate members of the Nicaraguan guerrilla movement. In 2004, he was appointed Secretary General of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Defence. From 2011 onwards, he served as academic coordinator of the Civil Society Leadership Institute. In 2017, he was appointed Executive Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Public Policy (IEEPP), where he focused his work on researching the impact of corruption on public administration.

In 2018, he joined the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB) movement, one of the main opposition groups formed in the wake of the protests and repression by Daniel Ortega's government. In September 2018, he testified before the UN Security Council on the government's repression. An arrest warrant was subsequently issued against him, accusing him of ‘organised crime and financing terrorism’, which forced him to leave the country, returning in September 2019.

He ran for president in the 2021 Nicaraguan national elections, but was arrested on 8 June 2021 and released on 9 February 2023, when he was exiled to the United States along with 221 other political prisoners.

On 15 October 2024, he was appointed president of the Latin American Liberal Network (RELIAL). On 18 November 2025, he was appointed president of the World Liberty Congress, which brings together pro-democracy activists and opposition movements from around the world. On 24 November 2025, from exile, he announced the founding of a new opposition party, ‘La Ruta del Cambio’ (The Road to Change).