Retired General Humberto Ortega Saavedra, former head of the Nicaraguan Army, called for what he called a “holy truce” in the sociopolitical crisis that the country is experiencing for through an opinion article published in the newspaper La Prensa in which he exonerates his older brother, the dictator Daniel Ortega, of the human rights violations perpetrated from April 2018 to date, in addition to omitting his responsibility for the failure of the two national dialogues.
In the article, the retired general reviews —from his point of view— the main political events in Nicaragua in the context of the crisis and ends by asking his brother for the release of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, who is in a maximum security cell. in La Modelo prison, for refusing to be banished by the dictatorship.
The former head of the Armed Forces points out that after the Social Security reforms, which triggered the protests of April 2018, there were “illegal roadblocks” set up by “armed opposition cells” that were disconnected from the civic protests against the Government.
“The struggle cruelly intensifies, illegal civilians clash with partisans, arms in hand: paramilitaries and entrenched. Finally, the Police impetuously dismantle roadblocks and protests, aided by improvised parapolice. President Ortega does not directly involve the Army,” the opinion article quotes.
“In May, the National Dialogue attempt called by the Government failed, due to the high polarization accentuated by the spilled blood, and extremes in the parties, opponents for supplanting the Government, the latter for dismantling the protests, hardening power”, he adds.
Reports from national and international human rights organizations and the final report of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) establish that the paramilitary groups that repressed the protests were organized by the regime to operate together with the National Police and carry out the most violent stage of the repression, as part of the “Let’s go with everything” strategy ordered by Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo .
The weapons used by these groups were of high caliberwhich are managed by the Nicaraguan Army, whose high command maintained silence and allowed the operation of these irregular armed groups in the repression of citizen protests.
On March 2, 2023, a new report, now in charge of the Group of Experts on Human Rights on Nicaragua (GHREN)confirmed that, during the repression of the 2018 protests, crimes against humanity and extrajudicial executions that hold up to date.
The Ortega regime rejected this report and did not allow the GHREN to enter the country. The group of experts recommended that the international community initiate legal action against the individuals responsible for documented violations, abuses, and crimes in Nicaragua. All these details were omitted in the opinion piece written by the retired general.
He absolves his brother of responsibilities for failure in dialogues
“In February (2019) another attempt at a National Dialogue was frustrated. Ideological radicalism is expressed in a sectarian way by those confronted. The government re-elected in November 2021 reinforces the dominant civil-police tendency, which dismantles the political opposition, imprisons various leaders of our society”, underlines the former military chief.
“Different opponents in exile,” he continues, “networks, are intransigent, and they encourage revenge on the government supporters, and they categorically oppose the negotiation, hoping that the government will explode violently. The opposition fanatics promise bloody reprisals to all Sandinistas who overthrew Somoza. The most exalted challenge the Government’s works of progress, however beneficial they may be, and labels of enemies and traitors arise, to those who exercise the right to criticize the Government.
The National Dialogue of February 2019 It failed because the regime rejected the agreements signed in this negotiation space, which were even signed by its representative, Foreign Minister Denis Moncada Colindres.
The re-election of the Government, which the retired general points out, was by middle of an electoral farcein which there was no political competition, since the main contenders were unjustly imprisoned.
“With the spiritual recollection of the upcoming Holy Week in April, the national parties will cease the high confrontation of hatred, exclusion. Starting with different communication modalities in order to reduce the intense political polarization, a climate that the governments involved support without sanctions, to facilitate reaching basic, viable agreements promptly. The freedom of Bishop Rolando Álvarez contributes to this complex communication effort”, affirms the retired general in the final part of his article.
It is not the first time that Humberto Ortega advocates the release of Monsignor Álvarez. during his speech in the CNN program in Spanish Oppenheimer Presentsdirected by the journalist Andrés Oppenheimer, advised his older brother to correct the situation of imprisonment and sentence against Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez.
“This (Álvarez’s situation) has to be corrected by the government because it is not convenient for it to deepen a clash with the sentiment of all Christians in Nicaragua and Latin America, which is very Christian and very Catholic,” said the former Sandinista commander during his speech. .
