The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo raised the profile of the retired General Commissioner of the National Police, Horace Rocha Lopezby appointing him as advisory minister on Security Affairs to the president, according to the presidential agreement 181-2022 published this Monday, December 12 in La Gaceta, Official State Gazette.
Rocha was appointed on November 11 as advisor on Security Affairs to the president, according to the presidential agreement 164-2022 published in La Gaceta of that day. The agreement of this Monday leaves the appointment in November without effect.
By being appointed to a position as advisory minister, Rocha becomes the highest authority before the Presidency on security issues, and can participate in the meetings of the council of ministers, where current issues in the country are addressed and is chaired by the vice president Murillo.
Movements in the National Police
Rocha’s new appointment is part of a recent castling made by Ortega and Murillo in the National Police, which meant the withdrawal of the General Commissioner Adolfo Joel Marenco Koreadeputy director of the institution and former head of police investigation and Political Intelligence.
The retirement of the police chief and political secretary of the Sandinista Front from the police institution was made public through a presidential agreement published in La Gaceta, two days after the dictator appointed as head of the Intelligence Directorate of the National Police, a Zhukov Serrano Perez.
In this same movement, Serrano Pérez was also appointed as deputy director of the Policethe highest repressive organ of the dictatorship.
Serrano Pérez took over the duties held by Marenco Corea, one of the officials most loyal to the dictatorial couple with experience in the area of espionage, acting behind the scenes to identify targets, from the Police, that the State considers their threats.
With the retirement of Marenco Corea, three deputy general directors remain in the National Police: Serrano Pérez, Ramón Avellán Medal and Aldo Martín Sáenz Ulloa.
In the police command structure of the dictatorship, Ortega and Murillo occupy the top, followed by security adviser Néstor Moncada Lau. All, with the exception of the ruler, have been sanctioned for serious human rights abuses.
Horacio Rocha was also deputy director of the Police
Horacio Rocha came to hold the position of deputy general director of the Police, until he was sent into retirement in 2014. In 2015 he was appointed by the Ortega regime as Consul General of Nicaragua in South Korea, at the same time that his wife Ana Isabel Argüello Yrigoyen was appointed as ambassador to this same Asian country. Both diplomatic appointments were canceled in 2016.
After this diplomatic position, the retired general commissioner left the public sphere. However, in 2019, Rocha made a brief comeback when he was decorated as part of the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the National Police, for being one of its founding members.
Interviewed by Police Visiona propaganda program of the regime’s Police, Rocha expressed his pride for having contributed to the formation of a “solid, strong, close to the citizenry, supportive, fighter and worker for peace” Police.
