Lucía Pineda Ubau
Lucía Pineda Ubau (born September 1973) is a Nicaraguan-Costa Rican journalist and the news director of Canal 15 in Nicaragua. She was a political prisoner under Daniel Ortega’s regime.
She was born in San Miguelito, Nicaragua, and her mother is from Costa Rica. In 1977, her family moved to Managua, where she attended Colonia Morazán for primary school and the Instituto Gaspar García Laviana for high school. She studied journalism at the Central American University in Managua.
Her career includes working at Extravisión on Canal 4, seven years at TV Noticías on Canal 2, and time at Canal 8 until 2000. She reported on cases involving Daniel Ortega’s family and on corruption in Arnoldo Alemán’s government.
She received the 2018 Press Freedom Grand Prix from the Inter-American Press Association. She was arrested on charges of inciting violence and hate and promoting terrorism, and international press groups condemned her detention and called for her release. She was freed on June 11, 2019 in an amnesty for political prisoners granted by Ortega’s regime.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:35 (CET).