Since Daniel Ortega sat in the Nicaraguan presidential chair, he has been in charge of telling a “parallel reality” of what is happening in the country. Rosario Murillo was in charge of designing the “uncontaminated communication” strategy and crushing the media.
Since 2018, through the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor), the state entity that regulates the operation and transmission licenses of radio and television media, the closure of information spaces has been ordered.
Telcor is the censorship arm of the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo regime against the independent press. In addition, he has granted operating permits and frequency to his children and relatives at will and whim, thus forging a communication emporium.
Related news: Facebook confirms that the Nicaraguan regime had a “troll” farm in public institutions
Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo turned their children into media entrepreneurs. Juan Carlos, Camila, Luciana, Laureano, Daniel Edmundo and Rafael are owners of a conglomerate of radio, television stations and web pages that includes channels 2, 4, 8, 13, 22 and the state channel 6; in addition to a radio station, the official 19 Digital and a series of online sites that fill social networks with “news”.
Murillo’s “strategy”
The exiled journalist Sergio Marín, director of La Mesa Redonda, affirms that in the position that was created for Murillo he was endowed with “abundant resources” so that he could buy television channels for his children, he made a reissue of the old newspaper Barricada that He called “El 19”, but the latter did not catch on even though it was free. “She took refuge in digital and that’s where El 19 Digital was born,” he recalls.
After that failed newspaper and its move to digital, Murillo began with the acquisition of television channels and increased his power in the radio stations of the departments, according to the journalist.
«She said that all information was contaminated and that, to counteract this contamination, that is, the axes of communication, propaganda and communication emanated directly from it, from its structure, in a pyramidal shape they went down to the media, which has already become in a great emporium of channels, radios and web platforms”, he highlighted.
The imposition of his narrative
The communicator assures that Murillo began the harassment of print media such as the extinct El Nuevo Diario and La Prensa because it was the only format that he had not been able to control. He punished the television media that he did not own, Marín says, by not assigning them any type of publicity that suffocated them.
“It has always been a desire of these totalitarian governments to exercise control over the media to tell their narrative: they call themselves a good government and they repeat it at all times,” he said.
Marín assures that despite all the media equipment that they have “people are not stupid” and had information alternatives, which from 2007 onwards have used social networks to inform themselves, to counteract the official discourse.
«Rosario Murillo, no matter how many means she has, has not been able to install her narrative in the national consciousness. For example: the “coup d’état” is completely outdated, as far as it is assumed by the majorities. Only fans and followers of Ortega assume it. He is losing that battle,” she said.
Marín explained that Telcor exercises “blackmail” to the media that are not part of the “propaganda swarm” with the renewal of licenses. They are threatened with closure if they publish (news about) the situation in the country and do not follow the official discourse of the “mafia group” in power.
the troll farm
In November 2021, the Meta company removed 937 Facebook accounts, 363 Instagram accounts, 140 pages, and 24 groups operated by the regime of Daniel Ortega, Rosario Murillo, and the FSLN party.
The company called it “the trolley farm”, which operated in the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS), the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) and the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Posts (Telcor).
According to the Meta report, these accounts were used by the Daniel Ortega dictatorship to “manipulate public debate and attack the opposition.” The Sandinista troll farm was a network run by people, mainly Telcor employees who worked from the institution’s central offices in Managua.
Ben Nimmo, the global leader of Intelligence for Meta Influence Operations, said at the time that these groups encouraged the manipulation of public debate in what was really a crossover operation by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Meta explained that the eliminated accounts accumulated a total of 585,000 followers to one or more of these pages, some 74,500 accounts joined one or more of the 24 eliminated groups, and around 125,000 accounts followed one or more of the 363. Instagram profiles suspended.
The sanctions against Telcor, the state censor
On January 10, 2022, as Ortega prepared to be sworn in for a new term in the presidential chair, the United States and the European Union designated sanctions against the “executioner” of the independent media.
Both countries affirm that Telcor has been used by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo to “silence independent media” as a result of the sociopolitical crisis of 2018 and for this reason he was sanctioned.
In addition, they mention that he has directed and carried out “surveillance” activities against civil society and the democratic opposition. The EU and the US agreed that Telcor was used by the Nicaraguan dictatorship during the electoral campaign for the general vote on November 7, 2021.
