Humberto Ortega and the negotiation for coexistence in Nicaragua

By Judith Flores

Rejection and suspicion are the reactions to journalistic information indicating that Humberto Ortega Saavedra, retired general and brother of the Sandinista dictator Daniel Ortega Saavedra, would be the liaison for the international community in the search for a “negotiated” solution to the sociopolitical crisis that It has crossed Nicaragua since 2018.

According to Nicaraguan media, the visit of the Sandinista dictator to his brother, former Army chief Humberto Ortega, on December 23, and the statements by European diplomatic sources to the newspaper La Prensa that there are approaches for a dialogue, could be the first step for negotiations between the dictatorship and the international community, an interest that the regime has shown on other occasions.

That the dictator’s brother is the supposed link for the “dialogue” has generated more mistrust than acceptance, a fact that would confirm that Nicaragua is hostage to the official Sandinismo, the Ortega Saavedra brothers, and the Sandinista dissidence that governed with Daniel Ortega himself during the 1980s and who today claims to be the opposition leader before the international community.

Both Ortega brothers are accused by human rights organizations of crimes against humanity during the first Sandinista dictatorship, for events such as Red Christmas.

Meanwhile, in a personal capacity, Daniel Ortega is also singled out for the second time for the crimes that his regime committed in the context of the protests of April 2018. A case also documented by human rights organizations.

Although dissident Sandinism and other sectors welcome the intervention of Humberto Ortega, who promotes “coexistence” in Nicaragua, has called for free elections for change and the so-called “soft landing” for the current dictatorship of his brother.

THE OPPOSITION MUST BE CONSULTED

The former head of the “Contra”, who fought against Sandinismo in the 1980s, Luis Fley, maintains that Humberto Ortega’s proposal for “coexistence” with Sandinismo is not new.

“He already did it in 2021, arguing that we Nicaraguans had to live together, and now he has revived his coexistence proposal. He wants to be accepted, but I don’t think the international community will accept him. I think he is trying to attract attention and seeks to be the link with his brother, the dictator”.

Fley, who has fought against Sandinismo for most of his life, believes that the opposition should be consulted about the possible connection to Humberto Ortega. “He is part of the problem that has never been solved,” he says.

Humberto Ortega is also accused of the crime against the adolescent Jean Paul Genie, perpetrated by his bodyguards in October 1990; a case that remains unpunished.

He is responsible for the Patriotic Military Service Law (SMP), which forced inexperienced youngsters to go to war to defend what they called “the Sandinista revolution”, in addition to being singled out for having enriched himself under the protection of his position.

“Humberto Ortega is making noise, raising his hand so that they can hear him. In my case, on this side of the opposition, we do not accept it. The dissident Sandinismo and another group known as ‘Monte Verde’ are the ones that promote a dialogue, an understanding with the dictatorship. Elections cannot be promoted because the dictator is not going to get rid of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE),” Fley said.

The CSE is the body that has guaranteed open electoral fraud to the Sandinistas in the last 20 years, and the consolidation of its power throughout the country by granting it the 153 municipal mayoralties in last November’s elections.

HUMBERTO ORTEGA AND THE OLIGARCHY

The writer and author of the book “The Foundations of Tyranny,” Franklin Sequeira, explained that one of the reasons why Humberto Ortega is viewed favorably by dissident Sandinism and other sectors of the opposition is because of his ties to the Nicaraguan economic oligarchy.

“Being the person in charge of managing the Ministry of Defense in the 80s, he had the power to create a staff with people he trusted. Observing this composition, we see that they were people linked to the conservative oligarchy, descendants of men who had been presidents of the country during the different periods of the conservative government,” he pointed out.

He added that one of the Sandinista tendencies led by Humberto Ortega and his brother Daniel, was made up of characters of conservative origin such as “retired general Álvaro Baltodano, from the owners of Café Soluble, millionaires; Ernesto Cardenal and Fernando Cardenal who were cousins of Dr. Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, assassinated in 1978, in a crime attributed to the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle, although other sectors affirm that he was killed by the Sandinistas to fuel the war and overthrow Somoza; Joaquín Cuadra Lacayo, son of Joaquín Cuadra Chamorro, who was descended from four conservative Nicaraguan presidents; and Oswaldo Lacayo Gabuardi, brother-in-law and cousin of Joaquín Cuadra Lacayo”, among others, Sequeira points out.

“All these powerful families in Nicaragua were related,” he said. Humberto Ortega maintains those ties, even today he is related to oligarchic families.

For the writer, the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) took advantage of the internal struggles between the bipartisanship that existed between conservatives and liberals.

“This was a struggle between liberals and conservatives that the Sandinista Front ultimately took advantage of to come to power in 1979, and for this reason it is that these family and economic ties and also sharing the booty called Nicaragua, are what join them”.

THE “GREAT STRATEGIST”

Sequeira says it openly: “Humberto Ortega is a criminal against humanity.”

He assures that the retired general has sold himself as the “great strategist” first of the war, after the Sandinista triumph to come to power, and already “with that halo he also sells himself as the strategist to achieve a ‘pacification'” in Nicaragua.

Like Fley, Sequeira believes Humberto Ortega is unlikely to be an effective link.

In his opinion, Ortega’s wife and designated vice president in Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, will seek to prevent it. “She has deepened the conflicts and the division within the FSLN, because she is not accepted,” the writer asserted.

But if a dialogue takes place that has Humberto Ortega as a “mediator,” Sequeira believes that there would be no solution for Nicaragua.

“It would be giving the FSLN fresh air,” he asserted.

Because the dissident groups affirm that Ortega and his wife have kidnapped the party with which Sandinismo has committed crimes and robberies in the name of the “revolution” for more than four decades.

Another of the big problems that affects Nicaraguans in the opposition is the lack of unity.

Added to this is the inability of the liberals to unite, to shake off their leaders and they have not sought unity because there are many petty interests involved, attacks among opponents, despite the fact that the opposition has been 2 and 3 times bigger than the FSLN.

Much more so now that I believe that the FSLN does not even reach 5% of the population”, underlines the interviewee.

Finally, from the official point of view, the United States indicates that for now there are no rapprochements with the Central American dictatorship: “We are always willing to respond to positive steps and there is an opportunity for them to change their actions to respect the minimum rights of people; But you start by releasing political prisoners in your country,” Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, told Voice of America.

With information from LGI