The former Sandinista mayor of Rivas, Wilfredo Lopez Hernandezappeared in a video recorded by his daughter Ana Valeska López while arriving at the airport in New York, United States, after months missing from the public arena due to the corruption scandal in which he was involved and which cost him his job.
In the video, which is already circulating on social networks, López is seen leaving the airport through the baggage area in the company of a relative. A moment later, his grandson runs to hug him while Ana Valeska López films the scene with emotion.
The departure of former mayor López from Nicaragua occurs at a time when the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo maintains almost absolute control over public officials and the militancy of the Sandinista Front. Some journalistic reports —even— indicate that the former official left irregularly at the end of October.
The “fall” of the mayor
Lopez Hernandez“resigned” as mayor of Rivas on July 11, cornered by the leadership of his party during an extraordinary session, called that same day and which lasted only 30 minutes.
The dismissal of López put an end to 14 years of municipal mandate and a trajectory of alignment with Ortega. The dismissed official is remembered for his support in 2014 for the works of the interoceanic canal, the failed project of the Ortega-Murillo Administration, which at the time the presidential couple sold as the initiative that would change the history of Nicaragua and take thousands out of the poverty.
Last February, a double FSLN corruption scandal in Rivas. One was by the administration of the former mayor of Rivas, intervened by the Municipal Development Institute (INIFOM).
On the other hand, the Police questioned the magistrate Ileana Pérez, in charge of the judicial district in that department, after they raided a property belonging to an ex-narco registered in the name of her brother, who was working as a judge in that same area of the country.
Pérez continued in his duties as President of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice until last October 25 when he submitted his resignation to the National Assembly. The former mayor, on the other hand, was investigated by the authorities for a shortage of 10,000 dollars. According to sources consulted by CONFIDENTIALthe former mayor even promised to replace the money, under pressure from the party leadership.
On Sunday, July 3, the former mayor was transferred to his house in the Los Robles neighborhood, after they had him at the Rivense police headquarters. Although the investigation was carried out by the Police, political operators such as the Minister of Agriculture, Isidro Rivera, the political secretary of the FSLN in Managua, Fidel Moreno Briones, and his counterpart in Rivas, Reymundo Membreño, participated in it.
