The streets of the municipality of El Tuma-La Dalia look like every day and as normal, dozens of people passing through its avenues, vehicles entering and leaving the town, merchants offering their products, including basic grains and vegetables. Do you know that they suddenly changed their mayor? The answer is yes.
Some still comment on it. They are clear that it is a dismissal, others believe in the version of the disease. The dismissal of Jaime Aráuz Centeno, as mayor and the appointment of a new chief in the commune has not gone unnoticed. “Uncle Jaime”, “that corrupt”, “eternal mayor”, “the oil tanker”, are some of the nicknames with which some residents of the town refer to him these days.
Nicolás, who asks not to reveal his identity, is a merchant in the area. The citizen assures that the former mayor “behind the facade of a committed politician, there was an individual who only seeks his own benefit.” According to this resident, “there are many people who have lost their lands on the orders of Jaime Aráuz. We didn’t want him as mayor, but those people managed to get him running again. It was a mistake,” he said.
He got rich at the expense of others
A teacher, identified only as “Marina”, expressed that “there were lots of bags of coffee that that man takes out every year and of cocoa, let’s not even say… that man has made real in all this time.”
A driver who travels every day from El Tuma-La Dalia to other communities considered that “one of the people who has grown the fastest as a businessman here is Tío Jaime (the former mayor) because only his gas station is a juicy business, he keeps full and never stops selling.
The Sandinista mayor began as coordinator of the El Tuma-La Dalia government junta in 1989. In the 1990 elections, he was elected mayor, until the 2000s when he handed over the position to the Sandinista Maryan Ruiz, who at the end of his term , handed over command again to Aráuz Centeno.
Related news: Ortega would have removed Jaime Aráuz as mayor of El Tuma-La Dalia
While he matured in office, Jaime Aráuz also stood out as a coffee and cocoa producer, combining these activities with the control of a gas station in the city.
Political and economic power
The ousted mayor’s prolonged tenure in these companies earned him amassed enough political and economic power, say the people of this community. The municipality of El Tuma-La Dalia is considered a port municipality, a large amount of coffee production from the department comes out of this area, as well as basic grains, vegetables, among other items, for the entire country. “We are not a poor municipality, we are impoverished, money moves here,” they say.
Former vice mayor Francis Lucila Torres Blandón assumed the chair left by Aráuz. It is known that in the corridors of the El Tuma-La Dalia City Hall there is an atmosphere of “tension and fear” among the workers. “Nobody here is safe now,” said a trusted militant.
For: United Voices
