The figure of a man with impeccable clothes and a long beard is increasingly common in public events in Nicaragua. In the official media; in diplomatic meetings and even appears signing agreements on behalf of the nation. his name is Laureano Ortega Murilloson of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.
Laureano Ortega, born in 1982, is the sixth child of the nine who has the presidential binomial and is perhaps the most notable. Although in theory he works in the State as the adviser for Investments, Trade and International Cooperation, his role seems to have more weight.
“He acts more like a kind of super minister,” he tells the voice of america a political scientist who prefers not to be quoted for fear of reprisals, but who considers that her role in government is greater than that of an investment adviser.
Laureano’s name was highlighted recently after learning of a rapprochement that the Ortega administration sought to have with the United States in the midst of the war that Russia began against Ukraine. Laureano would have been the bridge to try to negotiate the sanctions imposed by Washington in exchange for the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua, he reported at the time in the newspaper The New York Times.
But Laureano’s approach to the current Democratic administration in Washington, with which his father, at least on camera, has been in confrontation, is just a hint of the power he has over decisions that define the course of the country. Some analysts in fact mention that Laureano is being prepared to be his father’s successor.
On January 10, for example, Laureano Ortega signed four “cooperation” agreements with China, just one month after Nicaragua resumed relations with this economic power.
He has an affable character, says his sister Zoilamérica Ortega
Some former Nicaraguan officials and even relatives consulted by the VOA they agree that the reason why Laureano is appointed to these functions and perhaps for a possible transition in power is because he is the most affable of the children of the couple in power
“I must say that he has been put in that position because he is less radical. There are other people there who are very radical and who have very dangerous ideas for Nicaragua. However, he is a little more measured,” says former OAS diplomat Arturo McFields.
Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, who denounced the current Nicaraguan president for alleged sexual abuse, remembers her brother Laureano Ortega “as a happy child who was always close to his brothers Juan Carlos and Daniel Edmundo” as a child.
According to the sociologist exiled in Costa Rica, Laureano little by little “became a studious boy and very interested in art, precisely in music.”
“They all started out with a rock band, but each one later found their own thing. I believe that (Laureano) would have preferred music to the functions that he performs today. He has a character, a very calm temperament, he is not a furious person, ”Zoilamérica comments to VOA.
He studied in Costa Rica and stayed in the house of a former minister of the Supreme Electoral Council
Laureano Ortega studied sociology at the Central American University (UCA) in Managua, but later, after his father came to power in 2007, he was sent to study in Costa Rica, along with his brother Maurice. Both studied at the Veritas University. Laureano graduated in Audiovisual Production.
His stay in Costa Rica was surrounded by scandals due to journalistic revelations in the local media that uncovered that the Ortega brothers lived in the house of the former president of the Supreme Electoral Council, Roberto Rivas, accused of acts of corruption.
The newspaper La Nación, which also uncovered the residence of the brothers, published an article later in which he reported that Laureano was traveling in a Porsche 911 sports vehicle, which was exempt from taxes and registered in the name of the Nicaraguan ambassador, Hárold Rivas.
Laureano also defines opera as a lover, which is why he also briefly studied in Italy and Cuba, according to an autobiography that he posted on the website of the INCANTO Foundation, which directs and annually receives funds from the State in order to supposedly promote the art.
“(Laureano) has participated in improvement courses with different singing teachers, among which the soprano Lucetta Bizzi and the baritone Claudio Ottino from Italy stand out, and the soprano Conchita Frankie from Cuba”.
The same biography notes that Laureno “attended courses and master classes at the Luigi Boccherini Conservatories in Lucca, Giuseppe Verdi in Milan and at the Academy of the Fondazione Festival Puccini in Italy”.
Master Mario Rocha, who worked hand in hand with Laureano in the events organized by the INCANTO Foundation, shares with the VOA via Skype that Ortega’s son’s treatment of the musicians “was jovial.”
” I saw that he treated his colleagues jovially, but surely he has another treatment to other types of people, I do not know that facet, I did once hear a singing teacher who once mentioned that he accompanied him to a meeting of another level with political people and said that it was totally different, the treatment is different”.
of fine tastes
According to journalistic revelations from local media, Laureano Ortega is a lover of luxuries such as Rolex watches, as well as race cars.
In 2014, the newspaper La Prensa in Managua reported on the acquisition of several Rolex watches held by Laureano. One of them was valued at about 43,000 dollars and it was precisely with which Ortega’s son received the Chinese businessman Wang Jing at the Managua Airport, who promised to build an interoceanic canal in Nicaragua.
Succession would be unconstitutional
Even in the midst of all the luxuries, appearances and comments about the possible succession in power, Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo considers that a decision has not yet been made in this regard.
“For now, all of them (my brothers) try to fulfill a mandate from their mother and sometimes at the cost of their own personal freedom,” laments the daughter of the vice president, who is in exile in Costa Rica.
“For now, all of them (my brothers) try to fulfill a mandate from their mother and sometimes at the cost of their own personal freedom”: Zoilamérica Ortega
Meanwhile, the former opposition deputy Enrique Sáenz mentions that although currently in Nicaragua the succession of power would be in conflict with the constitution, he does not doubt that it can be reformed without problems from the Parliament that controls
“What happens is that in the case of Nicaragua, Ortega demolished the Constitution and the laws, demolished the institutions and, in the same way that it was constitutionally prohibited for relatives within the second degree of affinity and the fourth degree of consanguinity to be candidates , Ortega imposed the candidacy of his wife as vice president, in such a way that, even if the Constitution prohibited it, Ortega would not care,” says Sáez.
“In any case, he would use his servants in the Assembly to reform it and enable one of his relatives. This, more than legal, because in Nicaragua there is no law, it is political”, he concludes.
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