The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo dismissed the head of the Agricultural Ministry (MAG), Edward Francisco Centeno Gadea, and the secretary general, Ana Marcia Zeledón Avilés, daughter of the mayor of Matagalpa, Shadrach Zeledon, and left Vice Minister Isidro Rivera as the interim head of the institution. However, sources close to the Sandinista Front indicated that Rivera “could be the next on the list.”
The dismissals respond to investigations into acts of corruption. “The Economic Police is on the hunt, investigating acts of corruption in city halls and ministries,” a source linked to the FSLN confirmed to CONFIDENTIAL.
Centeno Gadea was mayor of Ocotal, and political secretary in that area. He served as head of the MAG for eight years, where he arrived after the departure of Ariel Bucardo, in February 2014.
His appointment was made official through presidential agreement 34-2014, and at that time, government sources assured CONFIDENCIAL that Centeno was a “partner’s record”, in relation to Rosario Murillo. Centeno participated in the government delegation headed by Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, which participated in the second national dialogue between February and June 2019.
The details of the alleged embezzlement that occurred in the MAG are unknown, but according to the newspaper La Prensa, the sweep was at all levels, including drivers, janitors and human resources personnel, who handed over their jobs last Thursday, June 23.
The last time that media related to the Ortega regime cited Centeno as a MAG minister, it was in a publication on June 10. On that occasion, the now former minister had returned from an official visit to Belarus, focused on paving a route for cooperation between the two countries and the modernization of specialists in animal production and land use.
Almost a week after the fall of Centeno, an agronomist by profession, Ortega has not made his dismissal official through the publication of a decree in the official newspaper, La Gaceta.
This Monday it was also learned that the Sandinista mayor of Rivas, Wilfredo López Hernández, is being held in Managua, where he was transferred since last Saturday, after the police raided his home located in the Los Robles residential complex, in the city of Rivas, According to sources linked to the mayor’s office
The sources indicated that, on the night of last Saturday, June 25, the Police returned to the mayor’s house and seized two trucks and a Honda brand car, as well as a large amount of money, which presumably exceeds 30 thousand dollars (plus of one million córdobas).
López, a local FSLN leader, is being investigated for the second time for alleged acts of corruption that include an alleged overvaluation of the “Casas para el Pueblo Bismarck Martínez” project, which has not yet been inaugurated, and the registration of properties in the name of third parties. .
However, FSLN sources in Rivas assure that López is not under arrest and will continue to lead the mayor’s office, although the municipal government is being intervened by the presidency through the Municipal Development Institute (Inifom).
