On February 21, during the ceremony for the 89th anniversary of the assassination of Augusto C. Sandino, held on Avenida Bolívar, five members of that party, according to Presidential Agreement 17-2023 They were awarded the Augusto C. Sandino Order. The list was headed by Lumberto Campbell Hooker, the foreman of the South Caribbean Coast, who received his award for his blind loyalty to his patron, the dictator Daniel Ortega, whom he serves without conditions, even at the cost of “betraying his own people.” », according to a costeño who knows him well
Article 66to construct this report, spoke with a person who has lived very close to the Campbell family and has known them almost forever, but who asked not to be identified by name for security reasons.
Asked about the image of the Campbell family in Bluefields, where they originate from, the source was harsh and direct: «Nobody wants them here, imagine that they don’t even have a house in Bluefields. When they come, they stay with a friend and do not go out because they are afraid, they know the damage they have done to this town,” said the person who spoke with Article 66.
Chieftains or foremen?
The Campbell Hooker family trace their roots to Bluefields. The visible head is the Sandinista guerrilla commander Lumberto Campbell, who has held various positions within the party and government structures. Thanks to his closeness to the dictator Ortega, he has also placed several relatives in important State positions, especially in the diplomatic service. At least six of his relatives work for the Ortega-Murillo regime.
Lumberto Campbell, sanctioned by the US Government in 2019, is a physicist-mathematician by profession. He studied at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (Unan-León), where he arrived from his native Bluefields in 1968. According to what he told in a interview on Channel Fourhe met the Sandinista guerrilla Pedro Arauz Palacio, who recruited him in 1969 for that movement, which was then fighting against the dictator Somoza.
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In the same interview, he assured that he had a very close relationship with the top guerrilla leaders of that time: Carlos Fonseca, Carlos Agüero and Tomas Borge. He did not mention Daniel Ortega, whom he knew closely until after 1979, after the overthrow of Somoza.
He was recognized by Sandinismo as a guerrilla commander, the only Caribbean man to reach that rank. And that made him a “foreman” of the South Caribbean Coast. “We cannot say that he is a cacique, because he is not, he is just a foreman who receives orders from his employers (Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo) and executes them,” said the source.
After the return to power of the dictator Ortega, in 2007, and until 2014, Lumberto, was secretary for affairs of the Caribbean Coast. That year he was elected vice president of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE). In addition, he has been coordinator of the Council for the Development of the Caribbean Coast, an organization that, according to our source, he still controls from its vice presidency.
Family members in the Ortega employee network
Lumberto Campbell has taken advantage of his closeness to the tyrants to place his family in key positions. His brother, Francisco Obadiah Campbell Hooker, has been in the United States for more than a decade, where he has been Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) and now before the US government. This Campbell does not have much resonance on his own within the FSLN. The former Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS, Arturo McFields, assured in a opinion article published in Infobaethat Francisco has submitted his resignation to the Ortega-Murillo three times, but they have not accepted it.
Miriam Hooker, Francisco Campbell’s wife and, therefore, Lumberto’s sister-in-law, is the Consul General in the US Leilani Campbell Hooker, Francisco’s daughter and Lumberto’s niece, is a press attaché at the same diplomatic headquarters. While her brother, Michael Campbell Hooker, has held different positions, from advisory minister to the presidency for the Greater Caribbean, with the rank of ambassador; alternate representative at the OAS and recently appointed ambassador to the People’s Republic of China.
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The Campbells’ nepotic list does not end there. Shantanny Anasha Campbell Lewis, Lumberto’s second-degree niece, is currently director of the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism. Gregory Campbell, Lumberto’s brother, has been a delegate of the Ministry of Family, Community, Cooperative and Associative Economy (MEFCCA) in the RACCS for several years, and Joel Narváez Campbell, Lumberto’s nephew, is a Family District Judge in Bluefields.
Delegate to “destroy coastal autonomy”
The source interviewed by Article 66 He stressed that he knows very well the activities of the Campbells, especially Lumberto, whom he calls a “traitor to his people and to the autonomy of the Caribbean Coast”, because he has been delegated by the dictator Daniel Ortega to destroy the Law of Autonomy of the Caribbean Coast.
He assures that by the 1980s, not all of the Campbell family was a Sandinista, but as they “grabbed perks” from the government, through Lumberto, they gradually became great Sandinistas. So loyal to Ortega that they did not mind “betraying his blood.”
“The fundamental thing for the Government is to destroy autonomy because they want to have all the freedom to grant mining concessions, that of the Grand Canal, logging, the expansion of the African palm monoculture, and Lumberto Campbell has been delegated for that function,” says the fountain.
Nothing is free
Lumberto Campbell is considered one of the most powerful men in the South Caribbean. But nothing is free, his blind loyalty to the dictatorship has allowed him to put together “a highly lucrative business network” for himself, his bosses and his family.
For example, electoral magistrate Campbell, according to data obtained by the Zero Hour digital platform, uses Leslie Earl Coe Hodgson, the first cousin of his sister-in-law, Mirian Hooker Coe, as a “front man” to participate in mining concessions.
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According to Hora Cero, Coe Hodgson has obtained, without further formalities, at least five mining exploration and exploitation concessions that add up to a total of 238,552 hectares, located in indigenous territories of the North and South Caribbean.
In addition, Commander Campbell is mentioned as a partner of George Morgan, owner of a processor called Pasenic (Pacific Seafood de Nicaragua), the largest fishing company in the Caribbean, which exports seafood and has a presence in Corn Island, Puerto Cabezas and Laguna de Pearls.
Commander Lumberto Campbell does not hesitate to demonstrate his absolute and blind subordination to Ortega and the FSLN. On channel four, at the end of his interview he said: “The front will be here (in Nicaragua) forever, hand in hand with Commander President Daniel Ortega and compañera Rosario.” He did not mention that at least three of his sisters have resided in the United States for several years.
