Daniel Ortega has given Nicaraguan nationality to 130 foreigners in the last two years, including fugitives from justice and political allies, according to an analysis carried out by CONFIDENTIAL based on the resolutions of the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME). Several of these naturalization processes were carried out in breach of Nicaraguan immigration laws, in the same way that they were violated by stripping 317 Nicaraguans of their nationality and making them “stateless.”
The “express” Nicaraguan nationality
While among those who benefited from Ortega’s “express nationality” there are fugitives from justice, accused of corruption, and politicians with questionable trajectories, among those affected by the stripping of their nationality are writers, opponents, journalists, politicians, released prisoners, and social leaders. whom Ortega also ordered to annul their political rights in perpetuity and against at least 94 of them they also ordered the confiscation of their assets.
An investigation of CONFIDENTIAL revealed that between January 2021 and May 2022, Ortega nationalized 81 foreign friends of the Ortega regime. Of these, the opacity characterized the granting of 35, in which the precise data of the total years of stay in the country of the applicants was hidden, a key requirement to obtain nationality according to Law 716 of Migration and Aliens, published in La Gaceta in 2011.
A new review of the resolutions of the Ministry of the Interior (Migob) revealed that from June 2022 to date, another 49 people were nationalized for a total of 130. Of the 49 cases, in 14 the period of residence of the person in the country was not specified. country, and in five only it was indicated that they had a “permanent residence”.
In the first group of 81 nationalized, 18 cases correspond to representatives with some link to the dictatorship, such as the former Salvadoran president Salvador Sánchez Cerén and at least eight relatives, who were made Nicaraguans between July 29 and August 11, 2021. These were joined by three grandchildren of the former Salvadoran president in September 2022.
Nicaragua, a “refuge” of corruption
With his return to the Presidency, in 2007, Ortega turned Nicaragua into a safe space for politicians with pending accounts with the justice system in their countries of origin. This also happened with the former Salvadoran president, Mauricio Funes, to whom he also granted a job in the Foreign Ministry and a “juicy” salary.
According to the review of CONFIDENTIAL, Two minors from Libya were the most recent citizens naturalized by the Ortega regime, on January 16, 2023. Both are children of Gamela Giuma Saed Daoud, naturalized on November 15, 2022.
According to the communication medium Onda Local, Saed together with Yader Masuod Ibrahim Issa – also Libyan and nationalized on November 15, 2022 -, are relatives of the charge d’affaires of the Libyan embassy in Managua, Masuod Issa. The diplomat has been seen participating in activities in favor of the Sandinista Front.
In Saed’s resolution, the Migob does not establish how long he has resided in Nicaragua, and merely states that he has been in the country permanently.
The Migration Law indicates that a foreigner from Central America or Spain can be nationalized after two years in the country and in the case of other nations after four years. However, on many occasions, Ortega violates the law to benefit his friends, through express procedures, as happened with two former officials of the administration of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández.
Former Central American presidents and officials
CONFIDENTIAL He listed the most controversial characters whom Ortega has nationalized since 2007.
Mauricio Funes
Salvadoran former president 2009-2014. The Ortega regime granted political asylum to the former president, a fugitive from Salvadoran justice for alleged embezzlement of more than 351 million dollars and payment of bribes, in 2016. Faced with the threat of extradition by the current Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, Ortega nationalized Funes, his wife and two of their children, according to a resolution of the Ministry of the Interior on July 30, 2019.
The dictator granted more benefits to Funes, with a position in the Chancellery of the Republic, earning a salary of about 2,739 dollars, as revealed CONFIDENTIAL, on May 13, 2019. His son, Diego Funes Cañas, was also part of the payroll of that State institution.
Salvador Sanchez Ceren
Former Salvadoran President, 2014-2019. On July 30, 2021, Ortega nationalized former President Sánchez Cerén, who is required by the Salvadoran courts for the crimes of illicit enrichment and money laundering. Together with the former guerrilla, his wife, Rosa Margarita Villalta, was nationalized; his daughter, Claudia Lissette Sánchez Villalta, and his grandson Juan Carlos Guardado Sánchez, also related to a corruption case.
According to a resolution of the Ministry of the Interior (Migob) from September 23, 2022, Three grandchildren of Sánchez Cerén were also nationalized: Celeste Alessandra and the twins Salvador Leonardo and William Manuel, all Vaquero Sánchez, children of Dolores Ivett Sánchez Villalta and William Oswaldo Vaquero León, who were also naturalized in April of that year.
The former Salvadoran presidents, both from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a political ally of Ortega, are fugitives from justice in their country, and have attended political activities demonstrating their support for Ortega. They were also one of the few former heads of state who accompanied the dictator at the swearing-in ceremony for his fourth consecutive term in power, the result of elections described by the international community as an “electoral farce.”
Gustavo Adolfo Herrera Castillo
In 2018, the Ortega regime granted political asylum to Herrera, of Guatemalan origin, and who was accused by the extinct International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig) of defrauding the Guatemalan Social Security Institute, reported the newspaper The Press. On October 2, 2021, he was granted Nicaraguan nationality after arguing that he is the victim of “criminal persecution” in his country.
Eval Jair Diaz Lupian
The former Minister of the Presidency of the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández enjoyed an express nationalization process by the Ortega regime together with his family nucleus. CONFIDENTIAL revealed that he arrived in Nicaragua on February 15, 2022, just four months before the publication of his nationalization in the Official Gazette, La Gaceta, on June 17, 2022.
Díaz’s wife, Jahel Rivera Pantoja, and their daughter Salma Jahdai Díaz Rivera, arrived in Nicaragua just a week before receiving the same benefit from the former Honduran official.
Rivera, of Mexican origin, and her daughter, were naturalized on June 17, 2022. Ten days later, her other two children, born in Mexico and Honduran nationals, were naturalized by “extension.” The Migob indicates that once they reach the age of 18 they must ratify their Nicaraguan nationality or maintain their original nationality.
Ricardo Leonel Cardona Lopez
He was the private secretary and chief of staff of former President Juan Orlando Hernández, former president of Honduras and extradited to the United States in 2022. The entire family -his wife, Claudia Mercedes Matute and his son, José Ricardo Cardona Matute- were naturalized on June 17 , according to a publication in La Gaceta.
Both Díaz and Cardona are under investigation in Honduras for acts of corruption. And in both cases their nationalizations were through opaque procedures. None of the resolutions establish the period of residence.
Alessio Casimirri
The former member of the Red Brigades was naturalized five years after arriving in Nicaragua, in 1988, with Daniel Ortega ruling the country. Italy has made several extradition requests for Casimirri for the kidnapping and murder of former Justice Minister Aldo Moro in 1978. In his home country, the man has been sentenced to six life sentences, according to a report in the magazine Magazine.
Mohamed Farrar Lashtar
He currently serves as Ortega’s advisory minister and delegate for Africa, the Middle East, and Arab countries. He is the nephew of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, a political ally of Ortega. Lashtar was nationalized two months before the dictator Ortega left power, in 1990, as part of a group of more than 1,300 foreigners who were part of groups allied to the Sandinista Front.
Maurizio Carlo Alberto Gelli
The current ambassador of Spain was nationalized in 2009. Before that, he was in charge of the Nicaraguan embassy in Canada. Alberto Gelli, according to a publication by The Press, was pointed out in a note in a Spanish newspaper for “trying to launder” the fortune of 1.2 billion dollars from his father, Licio Gelli, an Italian fascist and mafioso. However, there are no further details about it. Gelli began to hold consular posts in the Administration of former President Enrique Bolaños, now deceased.
Chin-Mu Wu, and his wife, Chun-Chiao Wu Liu
The former Taiwanese ambassador in Managua and his wife were nationalized by Ortega a day after his government broke off diplomatic relations with the island and recognized China as a new political ally.
Nationalized Russian scientists
Anatoly Eduardovich Evtushenko
Nationalized on June 2, 2021. In a meeting in October 2016, between Ortega and the director of the World Health Organization, he was cited as “deputy director of Development of the St. Petersburg Institute of Vaccines and Serums.”
Elena Kazakova
Nationalized on July 27, 2021, Director of Human Resources of the Saint Petersburg Institute of Vaccines and Serums.
Stalisnav Valentinovich Uiba
General Manager of the Mechnikov Vaccine Plant and nationalized on July 9, 2021.
Former guerrillas “friends” of Ortega
Ortega also granted political asylum to Doris Torres, Martha Pérez and Lucía Morett, three guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in 2008. After the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in 1979, the country welcomed members of left, considered terrorist groups and even provided protection to the well-known Colombian drug trafficker, Pablo Escobar.
The ex-guerrilla Mario Eduardo Firmenich He is one of Ortega’s refugees. He led the Montoneros organization in Argentina in the 1970s. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for some of the crimes that the organization committed during the “dirty war” against the military dictatorship. However, he was pardoned in 1990 by President Carlos Menem. In 2021 he was one of the observers, allies of Ortega, who endorsed the electoral farce.
According to an investigation of Connectas and Nicaragua Investigates,Until September 2022, Firmenich received a salary from the presidency as a planning advisor, for which he earned $3,735.63 per month, according to a database of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS).
In addition to his past as a prisoner convicted by the courts of his country, for the homicides of a businessman and a policeman, and for three other attacks against citizens, Firmenich has another stain that conspires against his hiring in the Nicaraguan State: he violates article 12 of the Migration and Foreigners Law, as he does not have an identity card, which prevents him from working in the country and receiving a salary. Currently, the ex-guerrilla is domiciled in Managua, which according to the journalistic investigation confirms that Nicaragua is “his new adoptive country” for him, after Spain.
On the other hand, a report published by Magazine in 2019 revealed the obtaining of identity cards by criminals, including Sergio Antonio Umaña Salamanca, Salvadoran and linked to the gangs; Amauri Carmona Morelos, related to the Cali cartel, in addition to Alejandro Jiménez – alias El Palidejo -, who identified himself as José Fernando Treminio Díaz, through a Nicaraguan identity card, for which the State has not responded to its obtaining.
