The Nicaraguan Army arrested the presidential advisor for policies towards indigenous peoples, Steadman Fagot Müller, for attempting to steal weapons.
In press release No. 196/2024, signed by the Army’s Public Relations Directorate, they detail that the capture took place on September 14, 2024. The action was directed by the Northern Military Detachment of the military force.
Related news: Steadman Fagot accuses the Police and the Army of complicity with the settlers who murder in the Caribbean of Nicaragua
They argue that the Nicaraguan regime’s delegate planned to carry out “activities outside the law with elements linked to drug trafficking and organized crime, from Honduras, who intended to steal organic weapons from the institution in the military posts located on the banks of the Coco River.”
Under this alleged alarm, the Army troops would have executed the capture at 3:30 p.m. yesterday Saturday in Waspán, North Caribbean of Nicaragua. The presidential advisor, they explain, was handed over to the Police and is under investigation.
Fagot’s arrest occurred hours after he denounced on a local radio station the complicity of the Police and the Army in the invasion of settlers, who he said are “armed to the teeth” with the consent of the officers of both institutions. The alarm is at such a level that these Pacific groups are very close to exterminating the indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.
The former deputy tried to disguise the responsibility of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in these events, but his strategy failed.
The Sandinista politician said that the dictatorial couple is unaware of the disaster caused by the settlers in the Caribbean. “Do you think that President (Daniel) Ortega is going to swallow this, that Vice President Rosario Murillo is going to swallow this? No, she is not. I assure you that they did not know, they are given other information. I may be wrong,” he justified.
«Today, when faced with any operational plan to get these people out, the first thing they ask is where we put them. It’s easy for us to say that they should go back to where they came from, but for a statesman it’s difficult. I’m not covering up at any time, no, since those lands have been my life, since 1973, the first time they imprisoned me, I’ve been around these lands,» he stressed, trying to place the Ortega-Murillos in a major difficulty in the face of the invasion of settlers.
The complaint that led him to jail
In an unusual statement to local media in Bilwi, Fagot said that indigenous lands are “devastated and some territories desertified” by the increased arrival of settlers who, taking advantage of the support of national authorities, are destroying forests and the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve to cut down wood and expand their control in the area.
Fagot, years ago, claimed that the natives could confront the settlers on equal terms. However, with the change in his line of discourse he acknowledged that the invaders became uncontrollable “when they began to arm themselves to the teeth, we couldn’t anymore, there were too many heavy weapons.”
He also lamented the helplessness of the community members. “They live like pariahs,” said the president’s delegate.
«Nowadays, if you want to go a little further to bring firewood, you have to ask permission. They don’t have firewood, where is it? It’s in the possession of the settlers, they have to ask permission otherwise it won’t come in, they are armed to the teeth, how can you explain that they are armed to the teeth? The police and the army must know. If they don’t know, that’s too bad, because they don’t have cells, structures that inform them. But, for me, they know. It doesn’t mean that there is collusion, but at least there is consent, otherwise how can you explain that all these groups of settlers are armed to the teeth?» he pointed out.
