QCOSTARICA — Retired General Humberto Ortega Saavedra, the brother of Nicaraguan dictator, Daniel Ortega Saavedra, is under a “de facto house arrest”, similar to the one that, for more than a year, the Police have imposed on more than 100 citizens in Nicaragua.
The coercive measure against the former head of the Nicaraguan Army occurred after the publication of an interview with the Argentine media Infobae, in which Humberto assured that his older brother, Daniel, does not have suitable successors.
This statement bothered Vice President Rosario Murillo, and Daniel Ortega’s wife and possible successor, according to Mónica Baltodano, former guerrilla commander, reported Confidencial.
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On Sunday, under the excuse of installing a medical unit in the house of the former Army General, police established a perimeter fence around the home and stripped Humberto of his computers and cell phones, according to the newspaper La Prensa, which republished Humberto’s interview.
Through an official statement, on Tuesday, May 21, the National Police confirmed the measure against the retired general and that public health (Minsa) and private doctors “visited and assessed” the health of the 77-year-old Ortega.
“They have found him stable in his condition as a coronary patient, and other conditions typical of his age and underlying illnesses,” according to the statement. “A specialized medical care unit has been installed to care for the ailments that have afflicted and continue to afflict former General Ortega.”
In the article published last Sunday by Infobae, Humberto Ortega gave an extensive interview where he recounts the particular relationship he maintains with his older brother, exposes his opinion on what would happen in Nicaragua in the face of his brother’s death and the solutions that he envisions to the crisis that the country is experiencing.
In the interview, Humberto Ortega considered that his older brother, who has been in power in Nicaragua since 2007, does not have suitable successors and that in the event of his eventual death, there will be a great power vacuum and elections must be called.
“Without Daniel Ortega, for me, Humberto Ortega, there is no possibility that anyone from that power group can exert influence,” said the retired general.
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He was asked about the president’s wife, Rosario Murillo, who is vice president of Nicaragua.
“Nobody. Nobody. I don’t want to mention anyone in particular. Without Daniel, there is no one, because, Daniel is the only historical leader who still retains the credits of that (political) struggle. Without Daniel, I find it very difficult for there to be two or three who get together,” he indicated.
“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 he has managed to sustain until now with great effort and with enormous complexities,” he reasoned.
Humberto’s statement must have felt like a “bomb” to hit El Carmen, the compound of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
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“Neither Rosario nor her children nor anyone from the current group in power can be a solution. If Daniel dies, they are lost and only uncertainty and the danger of chaos would remain,” wrote former guerrilla Sandinista guerilla commander Mónica Baltodano, in an opinion article published this Tuesday in Confidencial.
“For (Rosario Murillo) an obsessive psychopath who has been working for seventeen years to become the replacement for Daniel Ortega, who has come to control the CSJ (Corte Supremo de Justicia)and the Police, and has been projecting her son Laureano in the dynastic line of succession, this approach is deadly,” said Baltodano who was denationalized by the regime.
She stressed that “the relentless response by putting Humberto in ‘de facto house arrest’, trying to isolate him and silence him is proof of this. At the same time, she explains the increase in Murillista controls in the repressive bodies”.
According to the retired general, “Only the Army can prevent chaos”.
“In the 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 (Sandinista Front) to assume solid power.
“The only thing that can solve this vacuum, and ensure that there is no 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.”
On repeated occasions, the former head of the Nicaraguan Army has expressed that there is no democracy in Nicaragua and that the government of his older brother is marked by “authoritarianism.”
The younger Ortega also affirms that he has learned that radical members of the power group led by his brother have thought about assassinating him due to his critical positions, and the accusations that the dictator made him out as a “traitor” in public events.
Read the entire interview published by Infobae.
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