Retired Commissioner General Horace Rocha, 63 years old, came out of the shadows since last November to occupy the most relevant public position in the Nicaraguan security cabinet, after years away from public life: security adviser with the rank of minister by Daniel Ortega.
The government decision marks the return of Horacio Rocha, former deputy general director of the Police until 2014 and a conspirator loyal to the dictator, accustomed to handling the information provided by the bodyguards of the political leaders in power, while he served as head of the Directorate of Personal security.
The official positions himself in the position in the hours of greatest international self-isolation of the dictatorship, when they have radicalized the repression to avoid being accountable for the human rights abuses committed against the citizenry, especially in the fabrication of processes against political prisoners and persecution against the Catholic Church.
Horacio Rocha uniformed, despite being retired
Without saying a word, the official has raised concerns among some independent experts about the scope of his mission. He dressed in his old police uniform, displaying his old ranks at two public events: the presentation of the security plan for the Christmas and New Year holidays, accompanying the Police headquarters. Or, together with Ortega himself, in the recent tribute to the victims of the earthquake.
“No former director general of the Police, since 1979, has been in a public act in uniform, it would be necessary to see what role he has within the structures of the regime and in the FSLN Secretariat. It can be a symbolic handling of the uniform so that he exercises command”, commented a specialist, who also wonders if Ortega perhaps reinstated him in the police ranks in secret.
CONFIDENTIAL contacted two independent experts to try to sketch a profile of the official. They agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. In the two presidential agreements, in which Ortega first names Rocha advisor on security issues (number 164-2022) and then confers on him the rank of minister (number 181-2022), he is cited as commissioner-general as if he were active and assigned a service commission, allowed by local law in the case of retired officers.
We recommend: Ortega praises his repressive leadership, while attacking the Catholic Church
One of the sources described Rocha as conspiratorial in an environment made up of other people with similar characteristics united by their loyalty to Ortega, accustomed to acting as Nestor Moncada Lau, whose participation in the high spheres of the State was public when the United States sanctioned him for his participation in the repression. In the shadows, for years his influence was denounced by orders of the ruler in the same Police and the Judiciary.
Reengineering in your closest scheme
Part of the changes in the security cabinet, carried out by Ortega since last November, show a reengineering that seeks to consolidate his closest circle in the midst of a series of desertions of State officials during the last year, after the repressive escalation against the Church Catholicism and the senseless expulsion of diplomatic missions.
“The main reason for calling Horacio Rocha to the FSLN Secretariat is trust. There are many desertions. The couple—referring to Ortega and Murillo—need loyal people who will not refuse to comply with an order. Although he has access to privileged information due to his position, he must be very careful, because if anyone knows the minister’s past and present well, it is Ortega himself,” said another source consulted by CONFIDENTIAL.
On November 23, the president appointed as the new deputy director, in charge of police espionage, Zhukov Serrano Pérez, former intelligence chiefof whom Ortega publicly highlighted his studies in Russia.
Two days after conferring the rank of general commissioner on him, the tyrant himself withdrew the general commissioner Adolfo Marenco Korea, the predecessor, in a measure that for independent experts shows the internal erosion accumulated by the ruling party in recent months.
Serrano and Marenco have played an important role as “the eyes and ears” of the de facto police stateimposed by Ortega since 2018, through which demonstrations have been prohibited, citizens are kept under surveillance and the opposition and civil society have been persecuted.
Also: Elvira Cuadra: “Erosion is reaching the close circles of the Ortega-Murillo regime”
Rocha has publicly expressed his support for the Police, accused by the international community of committing serious abuses, including crimes against humanity in days of terror in 2018, when he teamed up with paramilitaries and State officials to guarantee the prolongation of the power of the dictator.
In the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Police, in 2019, Rocha highlighted that it is a “strong Police. Not only because she uses force, because of her principles, vocation, because of her dedication, sacrifice, because of his effort and that he will survive through history for 40, 80 years and a lot more time. He has contributed enormously to the stability and social peace of this country, ”said the until then retired police chief to police vision.
Access to escort information
For decades, Rocha has cultivated, on the one hand, the handling of privileged information to which the bodyguards had access from the “Personal Security” area, which was founded in 1979 as a department similar to the Secret Services in the United States, whose one of its functions the protection of political leaders.
Although there were more prominent Sandinista cadres in this sensitive area, an expert said that Rocha has training and has known how to move in the circles of power, approaching politicians when necessary regardless of their ideology.
Those who he knew best from his position in Personal Security in the years of the revolution were Ortega himself and his family, but he also got close to other leaders such as Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002), from whom he came to defend the construction of a heliport at his residence, considered a waste in the newspapers for one of the poorest countries in the region, but for him a necessary expense for security reasons.
He is originally from Diriamba, an economist with a master’s degree in business administration. Although his brother, the best known of him publicly, was the deceased Julio Rocha López, former president of Fenifut, Pointed out in a FIFA scandal in 2015, he has a sister closely linked to Ortega’s spy leadership.
Eleonora Rocha López, known as “Clarita”, participated in the FSLN command that carried out the takeover of the house of “Chema Castillo”, which in 1974 allowed the release of political prisoners, including Ortega. She was also head of the political department of the former Directorate of State Security, headed by retired colonel Lenín Cerna Juárez, recently sanctioned by the United States.
He is also the brother of Senior Commissioner Roxana Rocha López. For one of the sources consulted, the new advisory minister has a humorous, sarcastic personality, jokers, with the ability to establish communication and personal relationships. He stands out for being ambitious in material and economic matters.
In 2002, he was involved in a scandal involving bonuses granted precisely by former President Arnoldo Alemán. “That’s right, all the members of Personal Security, without exception, we all received a salary ranging from 100 pesos to 1,500 dollars,” admitted Rocha publicly to the newspaper La Prensa.
Personal friend of the first commissioner Francisco Díaz Madriz, Ortega’s in-law and current director of the National Police, sources consulted by CONFIDENTIAL They recalled that both belonged to “a group trained abroad that did not play a prominent role in the overthrow of the dictatorship, because it failed to enter before the final insurrection of 1979.”
Horacio Rocha López has always had a question on the lips of those he meets: “what do you think about this topic?” Like other members of the elite conspirators close to Ortega, he is arrogant with his subordinates, but he is the opposite with those who make up the circles of power of the different governments, according to the sources.
He is married to Ana Isabel Argüello Irigoyen, who worked in the office of former Interior Minister Tomás Borge Martínez in the years of the Sandinista revolution. By appointing her in 2016 as ambassador to South Korea, Ortega decided that Rocha would be her consul general. Four and a half months later they left there and returned to the shadows, from where Daniel Ortega took him out at this moment to put him at his service… Again!
