The Government of Nicaragua granted Nicaraguan nationality to three grandchildren of the former Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez Cerén (2014-2019), who is wanted by the Justice of his country on charges of alleged corruption, as reported this Friday by the Official Gazette.
The Sandinista Executive, through the Ministry of the Interiorgranted Nicaraguan nationality by extension to Celeste Alessandra and the twins savior leonardo Y William Manuelall Vaquero Sánchez, children of Dolores Ivett Sánchez Villalta and William Oswaldo Vaquero León, and grandchildren of the former Salvadoran president.
The parents of the minors were naturalized Nicaraguans on April 7.
Sánchez Villalta served as general director of social development at the Foreign Ministry during his father’s government, and Vaquero León, in addition to being his son-in-law, was a personal assistant to the former Salvadoran governor.
On July 30, 2021, the Nicaraguan government headed by the Sandinista Daniel Ortega granted Nicaraguan nationality to the former Salvadoran president, with which he cannot be extradited to answer for a case of corruption in his country.
The Sánchez nationalized Nicaraguans
Sánchez Cerén received Nicaraguan nationality with his wife, Rosa Margarita Villalta; his daughter, Claudia Lissette Sánchez Villalta, and his grandson Juan Carlos Guardado Sánchez, also related to a corruption case.
In August of that same year, the Sandinista Executive also nationalized Nicaraguan Salvador Antonio Sánchez Villalta, son of the former Salvadoran president, as well as Alejandra Sofía Guardado Sánchez and Carlos Manuel Pacheco Guardado, granddaughter and great-grandson of Sánchez Cerén, both minors.
The Ortega and Murillo regime has been generous with certain migratory profiles. Fugitives from justice, Russian scientists or related diplomats are among the 81 foreign nationalized Nicaraguans between January 2021 and May 2022, according to an analysis of CONFIDENTIAL of the resolutions of the General Directorate of Migration and Aliens (DGME).
Sánchez Cerén, 78, a teacher and with a guerrilla past, is the second former Salvadoran president required for corruption crimes welcomed by Ortega.
The first was Mauricio Funes (2009-2014), who arrived in Nicaragua in 2016 and, on July 30, 2019, received nationality in Nicaragua, whose Constitution, in its article 43, establishes that “Nicaraguans may not be extradited from the national territory” .
Former presidents fugitives from justice
Both Sánchez Cerén and Funes governed El Salvador on behalf of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a party allied with Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
Sánchez Cerén and nine other former Salvadoran officials are accused of corruption for allegedly receiving irregular payments in the Funes Administration.
According to the accusation of the Attorney General of the Republic, Sánchez Cerén would have received 530,000 dollars when he was Vice President of Funes, during the first government of the FMLN, now an opposition party in El Salvador.
The charges that Sánchez Cerén faces in court are illicit enrichment Y money launderingfor which a court recently ordered his international arrest.
The case against Sánchez Cerén stems from an investigation against Funes for the alleged embezzlement of 351 million dollars from the state budget, for which the former journalist is also required by the Salvadoran Justice.
