:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/YK3D4IBND5CUVMVQYCVU6T6F5A.jpg "Humberto Ortega | Why were Daniel Ortega's brother's cell phones and computers seized in Nicaragua? | Rosario Murillo | Who is Humberto Ortega? | Army | WORLD")
On Sunday, the Infobae portal published an interview with Humberto Ortega in which he stated that the “dictatorial” power from his 78 year old brother “he has no successors” within his family and Sandinismo and that after his death there must be elections in Nicaragua.
“When there is an authoritarian, dictatorial type of power like the current one, which depends greatly on the figure of a leader who exercises the Presidency, In the absence of this, it is very difficult for there to be continuity of the immediate power group.. For what reason? Because the same authoritarian, personalist, top-down tendency to command has castrated the transmission belts of the party. The party currently has no replacement… If Daniel Ortega is missing, for me, Humberto Ortega, there is no possibility that anyone from that power group can exert influence against a process“said the retired military man, to which Nicaraguan journalist Fabián Medina, who is exiled in Costa Rica, asked him: Or Rosario Murillo…?
“Nobody. Nobody. I don’t want to mention anyone in particular. Without Daniel there is no one, because, with everything and everything, Daniel is the only historical leader who still retains the credits of that fight. Without Daniel I find it very difficult for there to be two or three who get together. Much less one in particular, and more difficult in the family. Children who have not had the accumulation of a political struggle. Not even Somoza could establish his son. With Daniel’s absence, it would be very fragile to sustain everything that has been managed so far with great effort and enormous complexities,” he responded.
Rosario Murillo is the wife of Daniel Ortega and current vice president of Nicaragua. The couple has been in power since 2007.
What do you think would happen in Nicaragua in the face of the death of Daniel Ortega?, the journalist questioned.
“In the face of a sudden absence of Daniel Ortega, there would first be enormous confusion and impossibility, for me, for the civilian part of the government and the party to assume solid power. The Sandinista institutions in the government or the party would not have, in my view, the capacity to fill that void. The only thing that can solve this vacuum, and prevent there from being anarchy and chaos in the country, is the Army. First of all, the Army. Coordinated with the National Police. And look for a solution in the short term, perhaps a year or less, to call an electoral process, whether it is the one scheduled for 2026…. That would be it,” he replied.
Humberto Ortega77 years old, was founder of the Sandinista Popular Army in 1979, which he directed until 1995. In addition, he was appointed Minister of Defense and head of the Army in that same period.
Under his leadership, The Sandinista Army was transformed into a modern military force. Additionally, he played a crucial role in the peace negotiations that led to the end of the Nicaraguan civil war in 1990, facilitating the transition to a Nicaragua more democratic, points out the EFE agency.
After retiring as Minister of Defense and head of the Army, Humberto Ortega He remained relatively distant from active political life.
Plans to assassinate him
The newspaper La Prensa reported that the police command that arrived at the residence of Humberto Ortega was led by commissioner Vladimir Cernawho explained to the general that although he was not detained, nor at home in jail, You should inform the police of any movement you are going to make.
General Ortega was summoned to a meeting at the headquarters of the National Police with the minister advisor on Security Affairs to the President, commissioner Horacio Rochaof which no details are known, according to La Prensa.
The Nicaraguan newspaper recalled that Rocha has been in charge of repressive operations against regime officials who have fallen into disgrace.like the beheading of the Supreme Court of Justice.
In the interview with Infobae, Humberto Ortega He also reported that he knows of plans to murder him by members of the group that is in power due to their criticism of the regime, although he said he does not believe that these actions are carried out on the orders of his brother.
“I have exposed myself to radical people who would like to kill me. I have never shown them fear, and I have never said I am leaving. Nicaragua. I have never said that I am going to go into exile. And if they want to do that to me, I will not tolerate it and I will prefer to die defending those principles than give them the chance to humiliate me,” he stated.
Interview…
“Rosario Murillo is behind the action against Humberto Ortega”
Anibal Toruño, director of Radio Darío and persecuted by the Daniel Ortega regime
-What do you think about what happened to Humberto Ortega, whose cell phones and computers were seized by the police?
Humberto Ortega’s statements were, to some extent, perhaps a message for Rosario Murillor, where she tells her that in the absence of Daniel Ortega, the Army would be the one that would take the place and that neither she nor her children would have the capacity to resolve the situation. They (Daniel Ortega and Murillo) are partners, but they reveal the capacity and power that Rosario Murillo has because not only me but others deduce that the execution of the search of the house, the seizure of the cell phones and computers and the imposition of the house for de facto jail because one has to be reporting to the police, it is the work of Murillo. And on the other hand, This tells me a lot about the commander’s weakness and decline.. Probably in other times he would have opposed the measure.
– Don’t you think that Daniel Ortega directly ordered this operation?
He has knowledge, but the execution and order almost certainly came from Rosario Murillo. He doesn’t ignore it. It makes it clear to me that 70% of the power in the country is held by Rosario Murillo. Just as she took over the Judiciary, which was previously under the influence and control of dictator Daniel Ortega, she has been advancing little by little, taking on powers. We are definitely facing something that seems to me to be an almost irreversible trend and Daniel Ortega’s despair at not being able to prevent Rosario Murillo’s advance in capturing total power. Basically, the Army is still pending and it is something that she is already working to control.
– How much power does Humberto Ortega’s voice have in Nicaragua?
Humberto Ortega, within the Sandinista Front, he is an enormous figure. He was the head of the Army, brother of Daniel Ortega, he has an enormous history, he weighs a lot within the old guard and I am going to assume that the Army itself does not see favorably what Rosario Murillo is doing, because within this military circle Humberto He has his sympathies. He is the last great symbol of what the Sandinista Front was.
– There are figures from the Sandinista Front who have been imprisoned by the regime. Could the same thing happen to Humberto Ortega?
Anything can happen. If Humberto Ortega continues to express himself, he may be denationalized like others. They put him on the border and since he has a double residence between Costa Rica and Nicaragua and his family is outside the country, it seems to me that Rosario Murillo’s second step would be to expel him from the country. I am left with the question of if he tried to put him in jail, what would Daniel Ortega do, if he would put his hands behind him, I’m not very sure about that. I believe that in his statement the one who Humberto truly challenged is Rosario Murillo, the dynasty, the succession. That’s why they searched his house. And they send him to report to Rocha, who has been a subordinate of Humberto Ortega during his time. It’s a humiliation.
There is great unpopularity for Rosario Murillo around the historical circle of the Sandinista Front, although there is a lot of silence. What Humberto Ortega raised is what many wonder, if Rosario Murillo in the absence of Daniel Ortega will be able to unite this entire group of people who in some way remain silent, but who are not necessarily going to join it. in the absence of Daniel Ortega. It is one of the last questions that remain in the medium term, because Daniel Ortega’s health is very fragile, what is going to happen in his absence, and then Humberto put his finger on the sore spot and she evidently reacted. All the excesses of Rosario Murillo, who is the one who runs the country, are aimed at allowing her to assume power during her lifetime, that is, not necessarily waiting for Ortega to leave. And the last remaining redoubt of that is called the Army. Work every day to control it. Will he be able to do it? We will see that when Daniel Ortega is no longer here. But it is also a hope for all Nicaraguans because it is the only element that towards the future of the country can represent a fracture so great that it causes what Humberto Ortega already proposed, which is that the Army can assume a transitional government to finally convene democratic elections.
-With Rosario Murillo, doesn’t it happen as in the case of other dictatorships where the successor assumes power and the people accept it?
Constitutionally, it would be up to Rosario Murillo to assume power because she is the vice president, but she represents the enormous challenge for everything that is the Sandinista Front and what remains of its structures. She is unpopular, ill-desired, she is not loved, and I definitely believe that the loss of Daniel Ortega would represent a great danger even for the faithful of the Sandinista Front. The vast majority want to get rid of it.
In 2018 he asked for his resignation
This is not the first time Humberto Ortega refers to his brother’s dictatorial regime.
In July 2018, retired general invited Daniel Ortega to hold early elections in 2019 and asked him to “deactivate” the parapolice groups in order to pacify the country.
The message was known in the context of the anti-government protests that began on April 18, 2018, lasted for several months and left hundreds of dead.
“All Nicaraguans want a peaceful solution to the tragic crisis we are suffering, and the president Daniel Ortega By constitutionally advancing the presidential elections for next year, he says yes to peace,” wrote Humberto Ortega.
Together with his brothers Humberto and Camilo (who would die in combat in 1978), Daniel Ortega He was part of the urban guerrilla of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). His main armed action was the robbery of a bank in 1967, after which he was arrested and remained in prison for seven years.
After being released in 1974 along with other Sandinistas by an armed commando that attacked the house of a minister of Anastasio Somoza, he remained in Cuba and Costa Rica for more than five years. There he would meet the exiled poet Rosario Murillo, with whom she had six children starting in 1980 and adopted three that she already had. Today he is president and she is vice president of Nicaragua.