Sandinista paramilitary Marlon Gerardo Sáenz Cruz, known as “El Chino Enoc” and public critic of Rosario Murillo from “historical Sandinism”, he was accused this Thursday, May 19, for the alleged crime of drug trafficking, one day after his arrest at the hands of the authorities who kept him under siege for days at his residence in Estelí, in northern Nicaragua.
Saénz was accused along with the citizen Franklin Amador Salgado for crimes against Public Health and Public Safety, which are generally linked to drug trafficking. Amador Salgado had already been sentenced for this crime, but was released in 2017.
The accusation was filed in the Fifth Criminal District Court of Hearing in Managua, in charge of Judge Nalia Úbeda Obando, who will lead the process against Sáenz, and is known for her active judicial participation against opponents. Among his victims is the peasant leader Freddy Navas, the marathon runner Álex Vanegas and the human rights defender, María del Socorro Oviedo, convicted of obstruction of functions in Masaya in 2019 for an incident with a policeman, whom she slapped after he tried to grope her, while accompanying a political prisoner. The prosecutor in charge of the case is Alicia Solís and as described it is an accusation with detention.
The victim identified by the Public Ministry is the “Nicaraguan society, Public Health”, but also “the State of Nicaragua and Public Security”. The details of the accusation that occurs when the regime intensified the repression against opponents and priests and apparently also against those who criticize the decisions of Ortega and Murillo, even if they are Sandinista militants, are unknown.
On Wednesday, the newspaper La Prensa reported that he was arrested on Wednesday morning at around 9:00 am by National Police officers, who took him away in a private vehicle. Initially they transferred him to the Estelí judicial complex, but later he was taken to the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ), known as El Chipote.
The “Chino Enoch” had already warned about police persecution
“Chino Enoc”, 62, became known on social networks for the live broadcasts he made on Facebook, where he openly expressed his support for Ortega, his criticism of Murillo and in recent months he denounced that for his opinions He was persecuted by the National Police, controlled by the regime to which he is faithful.
“There are comrades who want Daniel to die, historical militants because without Daniel, Rosario does not stop us, Rosario Murillo is there and we have not fallen on him because of the respect we have for Daniel and that is true,” he said in one of their broadcasts.
This Monday, May 16, Saénz denounced on his social networks that there were police officers at his house and that they would not let him out. Earlier this month, he also denounced that the agents did not let him go to collect his pension nor did they allow him to get vaccinated. “(I) had arranged with the deputy director of the health center to come and vaccinate me, so they went to talk to the center’s management so that they would not come,” he said on his social networks.
La Prensa also reported that Saénz’s wife, who is a teacher in a public school, is being threatened with being fired if she speaks against the regime and that she has not been able to see him either.
So far, Sáenz’s relatives have not commented on the accusation, nor have the “historical” militants who used to accompany him on his broadcasts, using pseudonyms to avoid being identified by police officers at the service of the regime.
Criticism of Murillo
The “historical Sandinismo” movement had expressed its discomfort against the vice president, whose supporters Sáenz contemptuously called “Chayotal.” On March 28, the leadership of the FSLN ordered the Sandinista veterans to merge with the so-called professionals and to stop collaborating in intelligence activities with the police authorities.
The order was transmitted by Colonel Leopoldo Rivas Alfaro, coordinator of this group, which aroused the anger of some of them. In his speeches, Sáenz attacked Murillo with animosity and continued to do so, despite the fact that Ortega in a recent speech mentioned the need for generational change in the ranks of the FSLN, which was interpreted as a “back” for his wife.
“The relief is coming in harmony and not in confrontation, because whoever feeds the confrontation, then pays attention to the unity of the Sandinista family and the Nicaraguan family and the homeland,” Ortega said last April 30.
Sáenz blamed Murillo for what he considers a “right-wing hold” on the Sandinista ranks, which he says could cause division. For Sáenz, Ortega is the “moral leader” of the FSLN, followed as number two by Tomás Borge—already deceased—and there was still Colonel Lenín Cerna Juárez, former secretary of organization and remembered for being the head of state security in the 1980s, accused of serious human rights violations.
Cerna was replaced by internal struggles with Murillo in 2011, when the FSLN announced that Ortega himself would assume the secretariat of the organization.
