21 de mayo 2024
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The National Police maintain a siege on the home of retired General Humberto Ortega Saavedra, from whom they also seized computers and cell phones. The police harassment follows the publication of an interview with the Argentine media outlet Infobae, in which the former head of the Nicaraguan Army stated that his brother Daniel Ortega has no successors.
The newspaper La Prensa, which republished Ortega’s interview, reported that the raid took place on the night of Sunday, May 19, 2024, and was led by a commissioner who identified himself as Vladimir Cerda.
According to the publication, the commissioner informed Ortega that “although he was not detained or under house arrest,” he had to report “any movement he was going to make.”
Sources close to the former general told CONFIDENCIAL that several workers of Humberto Ortega were detained by the police.
La Prensa reported that the former military chief was summoned on Monday, May 20, to an “interview” with retired General Commissioner Horacio Rocha, ministerial advisor on Security Affairs to Daniel Ortega. However, this morning the “interview” did not take place at the central police headquarters in Plaza El Sol, and Ortega remained at his home.
The former Army chief and younger brother of Daniel Ortega is under a “de facto house arrest” regime, similar to the one imposed by the police on more than 100 citizens in Nicaragua for over a year.
Humberto Ortega’s Interview
In the interview with Infobae, Humberto Ortega said that without his brother in power, he sees it “very difficult for two or three to come together. Much less one in particular and even more difficult within the family. Children who have not had the accumulation of a political struggle.”
He also recalled that “not even Somoza could establish his son” and that without Ortega, “it would be very fragile to sustain everything that has been achieved so far with great effort and enormous complexities.”
He added that those who can fill the void left by Daniel Ortega are the Army and the National Police, and “seek a short-term solution, perhaps a year or less, to call for an electoral process, whether it be the one scheduled for 2026.”
On several occasions, the former head of the Nicaraguan Army has stated that there is no democracy in Nicaragua and that his older brother’s government is marked by “authoritarianism.”
This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.
