Four journalistic investigations, written by Nicaraguan reporters and edited by the investigative journalist Daniel Lizarraga, Originally from Mexico, they reveal the corruption in the mayors’ offices dominated by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
The work was published in the book: Overseeing Local Powerrecently presented by the Open Ballot Box Observatory and the Center for Research and Political Studies (CIEP), of the University of Costa Rica (UCR).
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In the findings found in the journalistic investigation entitled: «The woman of the contracts of the Managua Mayor’s Office»exposes the company Sánchez Soluciones Constructivas SA, property of Marietha Sanchez Campbell, who was benefited between 2016 and 2022 with dozens of contracts valued at $6,914,880 (six million nine hundred fourteen thousand eight hundred eighty dollars).
The works were granted irregularly by Fidel MorenoSecretary General of the Mayor’s Office of Managua and a trusted man of the dictators Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Among the data found, it is mentioned that the businesswoman —little known in the construction business— has revamped the historic center of the municipality and is part of a cartel of companies that receive the juiciest works from the most important municipality in Nicaragua.
The investigative work reviews the way in which the little-known businesswoman discussed millionaire projects in an exclusive coffee shop located in the center of Managua.
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«“We work in three neighborhoods, four blocks of streets and a park”, says the woman who is accompanied by a man, a little younger than her, but who listens to him attentively while he takes a slush that the waiter has just left in his table. It is June 3, 2022, the clock shows 4:30 in the afternoon, “says the journalistic work.
He also refers to the fact that the man who was next to him was Gabriel Sanchez Campbell, Graduated in Communication and shareholder of Sánchez Soluciones Constructivas SA, he was also a journalist for the newspaper La Prensa, in the area of economics, and a presenter of shows on local television channels, several years ago.
Familiar company
The family-owned company was registered in the commercial registry on February 8, 2012, but it was not until 2016 when it made a name for itself in the construction industry for receiving juicy contracts despite its inexperience in the business.
On the other hand, a businessman reported, on condition of anonymity, that in 2016 “the Government hurried the construction and rehabilitation of sports facilities that they were going to need for the Central American Games the following year.
He also indicated that Marietha’s company “was one of several companies that appeared out of nowhere and were blessed with million-dollar contracts awarded by the General Secretary of the Managua Mayor’s Office – Fidel Moreno.”
It also reveals that Moreno, described as the “almighty” of the commune, was in charge of awarding the works to Marietha’s company under the Simplified Contracting modality, a process contemplated for emergency situations, but which has been used irregularly to benefit this and other businessmen with a feast of millionaire projects.
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It should be noted that Marietha’s company —Sánchez Campbell— is part of five companies that have won the most expensive public works contracts in the capital.
The other companies are Chávez and Chávez Construcciones Sociedad Anónima, owned by Santiago Chávez Esquivel; Asesoría y Construcciones SA (Aconsa) whose owner is Julio César Moncada; Asesoría, Diseños y Construcciones Sociedad Anónima, of Miguel Ramiro Rosales Malespín is the third that forms part of this structure. The last company, although with less weight, that is included in this group is Crea Soluciones Sociedad Anónima, owned by Julio Martín Bonilla Orozco.
Sánchez Soluciones Constructivas gained such momentum that in 2017 it allowed Marietha to set up a business that, according to sources close to the businesswoman, was another of her obsessions. “Tostado y Molido”, a cafeteria located in the center of Managua, is her second “entrepreneurship”.
The journalistic investigators stated that the “ironic thing is that the discussion of the public works projects that he receives from the Mayor’s Office of Managua, are not discussed in his cafeteria, which he describes as cozy, but in another, where he can barely talk about how to continue building in the capital.
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Regarding Moreno’s decisions, the study detailed that these are not objected to by anyone, “and in the middle of 2023, the supervision that some opposition councilors previously exercised, is non-existent because the Sandinista Front, the regime’s party, was in charge of capturing not only the presidential power, but the municipal one».
In the municipal elections, on November 6, 2022, the Ortega regime won the 153 municipalities of the country, leaving out of control all the collaborationist parties that competed in processes branded as fraudulent.
