The Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) re-elected Alba Luz Ramos and Marvin Aguilar –both sanctioned by the international community– as president and vice president, respectively, of an institution that has five vacancies in its leadership since 2021, when the magistrate died Francisco Rosales.
Those five appointments, which must be made by the National Assembly, are still pending due to disagreements between the presidential couple, sources from the Judicial Branch reported, without providing details of the presidential struggle.
A magistrate, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the Full Court agreement to re-elect Ramos and Aguilar was signed last Friday, June 3, and in it Armando Juárez was confirmed for 2.5 years as president of the Constitutional Chamber, Armengol Cuadra in the Criminal Chamber, Ileana Pérez in the Civil Chamber and Yadira Centeno in the Contentious-Administrative Chamber.
This same judicial source recalled that Judge Pérez received the support of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, despite the fact that last February she was questioned at the Directorate of Judicial Assistance in Managua for the case of a property that belonged to a drug trafficker in the department of Rivas–in the south of the country– and ended in hands of a brother of the magistrate, Judge Emilio Chan López.
Judge Ramos, when consulted by CONFIDENTIAL This Monday, June 13, she remained silent when she was clearly asked—in a call to her cell phone—if she had been re-elected to the position, the same as Aguilar.
The prolongation of the leadership of the CSJ is an accolade from the Executive to one of its main repressive arms. The judicial management has been characterized in the last four years by legalizing the repression against opponents, and keeps at least 182 political prisoners in Nicaraguan jails, with the support of a judicial machinery made up of police officers, judges and prosecutors at the service of the dictatorship.
Independent legal sources consulted by this means, consider that these judicial officials would be committing the crimes of “prevarication” and “torture” in the case of prisoners of conscience, whom Ortega condemned calling them “criminals” at different times.
“Fight” between Ortega and Murillo for vacant magistrates
Alba Luz Ramos chairs the CSJ and has publicly defended the Sandinista tyrant, but has presented her resignation on several occasions, without it being accepted by Ortega. Instead, the vice president of the institution, Marvin Aguilar, is pointed out as the true power of the Court with the support of the powerful presidential adviser Nestor Moncada Lau.
According to the sanction imposed by the United States on December 21, 2021, the vice president of the CSJ, Marvin Aguilar, is the national political secretary of the Sandinista Leadership Council. “As National Political Secretary, Aguilar is in direct contact with President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo and reportedly coordinates the persecution of pro-democracy opposition members.”
After the death of Judge Francisco Rosales, the Full Court was made up of 11 judges. There are five vacancies: two due to deaths (Rosales and Ligia Molina) and three due to resignations (Rafael Solís, Carlos Aguerri Hurtado and José Adán Guerra in 2019).
Sources from the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) added that the issue of vacancies in the CSJ is pending resolution, because no one has been elected to fill them—despite Ortega’s control of Parliament—due to the “struggles internal” between the presidential couple.
As long as this is not resolved, the same sources warned, the officials remain in their positions because in article 130 it was established in the constitutional reform of 2014 that they will continue until “those who should replace them are not elected and take office.”
The constitutional period of a judicial magistrate in Nicaragua is five years. “The internal organization remained the same. That was decided by us (Judiciary). The FSLN does not name anyone,” confirmed the source consulted by CONFIDENTIAL.
The other magistrates of the CSJ are the Sandinistas Gerardo Arce Castaño, Juana Méndez and Elley Joy Lewin Downs. There are also the Liberals Virgilio Gurdián and Manuel Martínez Sevilla.
All are integrated into the four chambers of the institution, except Gurdián and Méndez who are part of the National Council of Administration and Judicial Career in which the president and vice president of the CSJ also participate.
CSJ, instrument for repression
The Judiciary is questioned both nationally and internationally for human rights violations. According to a report on “Those deprived of liberty in Nicaragua”, prepared by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), attached to the Organization of American States (OAS), the regime imprisoned 1,614 citizens between April 2018 and 2020.
“As of the closing date of this report, the criminalization of voices critical of the Government persists in Nicaragua in a context of complete lack of guarantees of impartiality and independence of the Nicaraguan judicial system,” said the IACHR, which also pointed to “impunity.” as another feature of the system.
The United States questioned again this June 13 the complicity of the “judges and prosecutors” who participated in the convictions of political prisoners by announcing the restriction of 93 visas. They also sanctioned deputies and officials of the Ministry of the Interior for the persecution of civil society with the massive closure of NGOs, ordered by the State.
