The health of General Humberto Ortega, a critic of his brother Daniel Ortega’s government in Nicaragua, has suffered “a sudden deterioration” in recent hours, the Nicaraguan army reported this Sunday.
In the morning hours, Humberto Ortega “presented a sudden deterioration of his condition with cardiogenic shock and altered state of consciousness that required intensive care treatment” to maintain blood pressure, said the Nicaraguan army in a statement published by the official media www.el19digital.com.
According to the note, a team of doctors “maintains vigilance” over the former Army chief due to the “severity” of his condition. Humberto Ortega, 77, was being held under police custody at his home after criticizing the Sandinista government, when on June 11 he was urgently transferred to a military hospital in Managua due to heart problems, hypertension, and an infection.
“During his hospital stay, under special treatment and care, his health status stabilized, overcoming the severity and being transferred to the hospitalization ward,” the Nicaraguan army said. However, his health situation has worsened in recent hours.
Ortega was detained at his home after saying in an interview that his brother Daniel, 78, lacks successors and his power will not withstand an eventual death.
On May 28, the President of Nicaragua said in a public event that whoever served as Army chief in 1992 – Humberto Ortega, without naming him – committed an act of “treason to the homeland” by decorating a U.S. military officer at that time.
The Ortega brothers were part of the Sandinista guerrilla that fought against the Somoza family dictatorship, which ruled the Central American country with an iron fist for more than four decades (1936-1979).
After the triumph of the revolution in 1979, Humberto Ortega became Army chief until 1995, while his brother took the reins of the government. In 1990, Daniel Ortega was defeated in elections, although he regained power in 2007 and has been successively re-elected in elections questioned by the United States and the European Union (EU).
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