The Nicaragua Investiga y Article 66 investigation will be presented at the Colpin Table on the topic of “Dictatorships and Business”, along with other investigations into presidential corruption in Venezuela and El Salvador.
The Nicaraguan journalistic investigation Investigates and Article 66 on a national network of front men of nine companies, all linked to ex-military and ex-police officers, who operate as a cartel providing security and surveillance services to the State of Nicaragua, will be presented at the Latin American Conference on Investigative Journalism (Colpin), which begins on October 22 in Madrid, Spain.
The journalistic piece titled “The business of private security in Nicaragua: a mafia cartel of ex-military and ex-police officers” was a discovery by an investigative journalist from Nicaragua Investiga, who, for security reasons, his name cannot be published for fear of reprisals. policies. After several months of investigation, he managed to locate a national network of “influence peddling” that allowed them to win million-dollar contracts by providing private security and surveillance.
Later, important collaboration was obtained from Article 66, another research medium, to continue advancing the findings.
The investigation will be presented at the Colpin Table on “Dictatorships and Business”, along with other investigations into presidential corruption in Venezuela and El Salvador.
What is Colpin?
La Colpin is the most important investigative journalism event in Latin America, where the best Spanish-speaking investigations are presented. The jury is usually eminently technical and is made up of the best investigative journalists in Latin America.
This investigation was even taken into account by the United States Department of State, in a report published on April 23 emphasizing that there is a group of former police officers and former soldiers linked to the Ortega-Murillo regime winning public contracts with no tax observation.
“Nine security companies owned in whole or in part by members of the FSLN who were also former police officers, soldiers, and members of the executive branch won all government tenders to provide public services,” reads the document, titled “National reports on human rights practices 2023: Nicaragua,” alleging that these private deals were done with little or no supervision.
About the investigation
The journalistic piece from both media is derived from 55 contracts obtained from the Electronic Administrative Contracting System (Siscae) – website where public procurement processes are carried out – in which 25 State institutions that request – because they continue to do so – are involved. security and private surveillance services.
All these contracts were analyzed from 2018 to July 2023, without taking into account the following months for the closing of that year. In that period, the nine companies received 19,627,346.09 dollars.
The investigation reveals that the company Serprosa, linked to the family of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, is the one that received the most million-dollar contracts. In the five-year period, 17 tenders were awarded that totaled $8,715,077.60, according to a calculation made by this research team.
Francisco Javier Bautista Lara, former deputy director of the National Police—along with several former commissioners—appears winning public contracts when he was ambassador to the Vatican, violating Nicaraguan legislation. Like them, there are also former military personnel who held senior management positions and are now partners in those businesses.
