Behind Daniel Ortega’s return to the presidency of Nicaragua in 2007 – following the defeat of the ruling Sandinista party at the polls in 1990 – there was a key figure: his brother and fellow fighter, Humberto Ortega.
This is stated in a collection titled “Ten facts to understand the Alemán-Ortega pact”written in 2019 by Fabián Medina for Magazine, a Nicaraguan magazine based on narrative journalism on historical topics that have impacted the Central American nation.
Humberto Ortega, 77, along with his brother Daniel, 78, was one of the leaders of the insurrection that overthrew the government of the Somoza family (1937-1979). After the triumph of the Sandinistas, Humberto was the Chief of the Army and continued in office for five more years during the government of Violeta Chamorro, until his retirement in 1995.
Research Magazine documents that it was Humberto Ortega who managed to establish the bridge that allowed an agreement between the government of then President Arnoldo Alemán and the Sandinistas so that a president could be elected with only 35% of the votes.
In Nicaragua, at least 45% of the vote was required to win in the first round of elections, a high bar for Ortega, whose image and popularity were low due to the civil war that brought him to power in 1979 and the failures that many Nicaraguans attributed to his first term, which ended in 1990.
How did Humberto Ortega manage to attract the attention of the liberals in power?
Research Magazine It was revealed that it was Humberto Ortega, already a retired general, who at the beginning of 1998 coincided on a flight to Mexico with Jaime Morales Carazo, a liberal very close to the then president Arnoldo Alemán.
In accordance with Magazine, The Liberals had considered the possibility of advancing “an understanding with the Sandinistas that would allow them to govern without that incendiary opposition that was the Sandinista Front.” But it was Humberto who pushed for the possibility.
“Why don’t we seek an understanding to avoid all these frictions and all these things, where neither of the two parties will beat each other up,” Humberto Ortega suggested to Morales Carazo in the informal conversation during the flight to Mexico.
Thus, upon his return to Managua, Morales Carazo proposed to the then president Alemán that he approach the Sandinistas led by Daniel Ortega. This was not the only time that Humberto Ortega contacted the liberals. Some time later he met again with Morales Carazo in a suite at the Camino Real hotel in Mexico, and then they met at the house of a lawyer in Managua.
The meeting of Daniel Ortega and Arnoldo Alemán
Following meetings between Humberto Ortega and liberals close to President Arnoldo Alemán, what Humberto Ortega called “a limit” was agreed upon, alluding to what became a meeting between Daniel Ortega and Alemán, at his residence in Casa Colorada.
Later, the meetings between the two politicians continued, but Humberto did not appear at any of them, nor did he participate in the negotiating team.
– “What happened?” Morales Carazo later said he asked Alemán about Humberto’s disappearance during the meetings.
– “We didn’t even ask and it was left like that. I guess since Daniel was already in the game, Humberto got out,” Alemán says he replied.
Without Humberto Ortega, on August 28, 1998, the so-called “Political Dialogue” was established, where delegations from nine of the twelve parties with parliamentary representation at that time met, with the purpose of discussing and reaching a consensus on the laws and reforms that the country needed for its development, according to the investigation of Magazine.
This left behind three consecutive electoral defeats for the Sandinistas led by Daniel Ortega: those of 1990, 1996 and 2001, in which Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Arnoldo Alemán and Enrique Bolaños won, respectively.
In 2007, Daniel Ortega won the elections and has remained at the head of the country ever since. His brother Humberto Ortega has never again had a leading role or held public office. Since 2007, his running mates have been former combatants and his wife, the current vice president Rosario Murillo.
What we know: What happened to Humberto Ortega?
Although Humberto Ortega accompanied his brother Daniel in every battle during the guerrilla war that ended Anastasio Somoza’s power in the late 1970s, his fortunes have been changing ever since.
The most radical change was known on May 20, when Nicaraguan police admitted that they had him under guard at their homearguing that the surveillance was related to his health problems.
However, the surveillance operation took place a day after an interview exclusive with the medium Infobae, May 19th, in which Humberto Ortega said that Daniel has no successors to replace him when he dies, and that elections will have to be called with the support of the Army to avoid “a power vacuum” and “chaos” in the country.
Read also- Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega accuses his brother Humberto of “treason”.
– “Daniel Ortega is 78 years old. Could his death create a power vacuum in Nicaragua or do you see the dynastic succession being activated?” the journalist from Infobae.
– “When there is an authoritarian, dictatorial power like the current one, which depends heavily on the figure of a leader who exercises the Presidency, in the absence of this leader, it is very difficult for there to be continuity of the immediate power group. I do not want to mention anyone in particular. Without Daniel, there is no one,” responded Humberto Ortega.
Humberto even said that not even the last of the Somozas could establish his son as his successor.
At the end of last May, Daniel Ortega called his brother Humberto a “traitor” after he was placed under “medical surveillance” at home for having decorated the US military attaché in Managua in 1992.
“He sold his soul to the devil,” Ortega said at an event at the end of last Mayin front of dozens of soldiers and police officers, in the first public allusion to his brother since the controversy began that same month with the interview that Humberto gave to Infobae.
Daniel did not mention his name at the event but said that “the then head of the Army” decorated the US military attaché, Dennis Quinn, with the Camilo Ortega medal in January 1992, which he described as a “shame” and a “betrayal of the people and the country.”
Camilo Ortega was the youngest of three brothers and also a guerrilla fighter, who died in combat during the final Sandinista uprising against Somoza in 1978. The Sandinista army, led by Humberto, created the medal in his honor after the fall of Somoza a year later.
The 1990 elections, the first turning point
Sociologist Oscar René Vargas, founder of the Sandinista Front and today a critic of Daniel Ortega, told the Voice of America that the “rift” between the brothers began “following the 1990 elections.”
“Each one began to run parallel, different paths. That’s where the first differences between them began,” Vargas assured the VOA.
After his retirement in 1995, Humberto left the government but not the public eye. From that moment on, he worked as an analyst on world and national conflicts and the disagreements between the brothers did not cease.
The death of his mother, Lidia Saavedra, in May 2005, was also a cause of conflict. Humberto wanted to bury his mother in a private cemetery, something Daniel did not agree to, who decided that their mother should be buried in the General Cemetery of Managua, a public site.
Rafael Solís, former guerrilla of the Sandinista Front and former judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua, assured the VOA that the rift between the Ortega brothers was aggravated by the influence of Daniel’s wife and vice president Rosario Murillo. Solís believes that Murillo is emerging as the “heiress to power.”
According to Solís, Murillo fears that Daniel will emulate the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who left his brother Raúl Castro as his replacement when he fell ill in 2006.
“[Rosario] Murillo sees herself as the heir, and no one else (…) She believes she has the right to have a share of power,” Solís said.
Humberto was critical of his brother’s government during the protests of 2018 which left more than 300 dead and human rights organizations have documented acts of repression against protesters.
Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli, who knew the Ortegas closely, told the VOA that Humberto’s statements and the reaction of his brother Daniel Ortega showed “great weakness and fear of criticism.”
“What is at stake is whether Rosario Murillo will be Daniel Ortega’s successor, and given the reaction they had when Humberto Ortega did not mention her as his successor in Infobae, it seems to me to be a great sign of weakness,” said Belli.
The VOA requested comments from Humberto Ortega, but received no response as of the time of this publication.
In this context, Dora María Téllez, a former Nicaraguan guerrilla and Sandinista dissident, believes that the future of the former Army chief is in danger.
“I think the Ortega Murillos have known well that when they subject older people, like Humberto, 77, to prison conditions of stress and harassment, the results can be catastrophic. Humberto’s life is in danger,” warned Téllez.
Currently, Humberto Ortega remains under police protection at his residence in Managua and disconnected from all forms of communication, according to local media reports.
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