Retired General Humberto Ortega Saavedra, former head of the Nicaraguan Army and brother of President Daniel Ortega, is in “serious condition and with a reserved prognosis,” local authorities reported.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the management of the “Dr. Alejandro Dávila Bolaños” based in Managua, the health of the former head of the Nicaraguan Army deteriorated in the morning hours of the same day, for which he was admitted to “intensive care.”
“The patient presented a sudden deterioration in his condition with cardiogenic shock and altered state of consciousness that required intensive therapy treatment to maintain blood pressure levels,” according to a statement from the Military Hospital.
Humberto Ortega is currently under house arrest since mid-May, after criticizing his brother, President Daniel Ortega, and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, in an interview with the international media Infobae. Humberto then said that Nicaragua would have free elections when President Daniel Ortega dies and added that after him there would be no successors.
Daniel Ortega called his brother “traitor” days after the ex-military interview and accused him of “having sold his soul to the devil.”
Humberto Ortega is 77 years old and played an important role after the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in 1979 when he was named Chief of the Army until the beginning of 1990 when his brother Daniel Ortega lost power after going to elections with Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.
After his retirement, the former military man had dedicated himself to writing books and providing political analysis, even in the midst of the sociopolitical crisis that Nicaragua has been experiencing since 2018, becoming one of the main critics of his brother Daniel Ortega.
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