The Sandinista regime, headed by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, made official, this Wednesday, the “resignation” of the head of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), Martha Verónica Reyes Álvarez, and neither the causes of her supposed resignation nor who has yet been announced. He will be the one who occupies that position, so the health institution is officially without a head until the tyrant announces the new minister.
Ortega decided to “accept” Reyes’ resignation through Presidential Agreement 183-2024, published this October 23 in La Gaceta, Official Gazette number 194, which only serves to make official the departure of the now former head of the Minsa.
Reyes had held that position since April 2020, when she was appointed by the dictator to replace Carolina Dávila, who was separated from the position and consoled with the position of advisory minister for SILIS care.
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During the more than four years that she held the position, Reyes was overshadowed by the presidential advisors on health issues, Carolina Reyes and Sonia Castro, the latter, protected by Ortega for having shown her loyalty to the dictator and the Sandinismo by closing the hospitals to the protesters injured during the social protests of 2018. Castro’s order caused the death of dozens of Nicaraguans hit by police and paramilitary shots.
In the presence of these two advisors of the dictator, Reyes had been reduced to showing her face in interviews “guided” by propagandists of the regime or to read official communications.
Former Minister Reyes is a doctor specializing in Epidemiology. He has a long history within the Health institution, where he has worked for at least 30 years. The now former head of the Minsa held several positions, including director of immunizations.
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Within the institution, it is said that she had always been a professional who always tried to maintain a very technical profile; however, upon Ortega’s arrival to power, as happened in all institutions, state positions were politicized.
Reyes began to occupy the health portfolio in the midst of the pandemic crisis caused by Covid 19. At that time of emergency, the then minister, being a specialist in epidemiology, was reduced to a reader of communications.
The Presidential Agreement of the dictatorship does not mention what will become of former Minister Reyes now that she leaves the institution.
