The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is once again moving its political pawns to assign them diplomatic positions. This time, it appointed Jessica Yaoska Padilla Leiva as Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Dominican Republic through presidential decree 117-2024 published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta.
Padilla is a young woman with no experience in foreign service, but her resume stands out for having been part of the Sandinista Youth (JS), the political arm of the Nicaraguan regime that controls universities and serves as shock groups in eventual protests against it.
“Some appointments that our president Daniel Ortega has authorized are that our colleague Jessica Yaoska Padilla Leiva “She has moved from being Minister of Women to diplomatic functions as ambassador. She has been appointed first as minister counselor and at the same time we are nominating her as ambassador of the people and government of the Dominican Republic,” Murillo said last May.
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Padilla was appointed head of the Ministry of Women in 2019 and dismissed to perform “diplomatic functions.” The position has now been filled by Tamara Vanesa Martínez, who will lead the so-called National Council of Women alongside Ortega and Murillo.
Under Padilla, the Ministry of Women has not met expectations. On the contrary, rates of violence against women have increased. So far this year, 38 femicides have been reported, and in 2023, 52 deaths were recorded due to gender violence, according to the feminist organization Catholics for the Right to Decide.
Padilla participated in the 66th Session of the Commission on the Legal and Social Status of Women held in New York, with a message in which she praised the loans that the Sandinista government grants to women through the Zero Usury program, the creation of shelters and public health care for women. However, she did not mention programs or campaigns that are aimed at countering violence against women in Nicaragua. In addition, she did not mention the number of femicides that seem to have increased in recent years.
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The young woman has been placed in positions of loyalty to the Ortegas, serving as Minister Counselor with Consular Functions at the Embassy of Nicaragua in Costa Rica until 2019, when she was named Minister of Women. Padilla Leiva also exercised great leadership within the Sandinista Youth. In 2018, during the crisis, the young Sandinista openly defended the Ortega regime’s repression against university students and opponents.
According to Vice-Dictator Murillo, Padilla Leiva has a degree in International Relations from the University of Science and Technology in Managua and completed a Master’s degree in Political Science in Chile.
