Judge Luden Martín Quiroz, of the Ninth Criminal District Court of Managua, found the former presidential candidate, Cristiana Chamorro, guilty of the alleged crime of abusive management, ideological falsehood, misappropriation and retention, and laundering of money, property, and assets; two former employees of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCh), Marcos Fletes and Walter Gómez; the driver Pedro Vásquez, and the former deputy Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, for the alleged crime of abusive management, ideological falsehood, appropriation and improper retention.
The court ruling was made known this Friday, after seven days of hearings; the last three marathons. The Prosecutor’s Office requested 13 years in prison for Cristiana Chamorro, Marcos Fletes, Walter Gómez; seven years for Pedro Vásquez, and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, although they did not prove the commission of the crimes by the accused, the defenses indicated.
The prosecution bases its accusation on a preliminary report
This Thursday, the Public Ministry presented as a witness Captain Jairo Ramírez Carrión, an expert from the National Police’s Directorate of Economic Investigations (DIE), responsible for preparing the financial analysis of the Foundation’s case, on which the accusation rests. However, the 99-page document indicates from the first page that it is a “preliminary report”; fact that was ratified by the same expert when he was consulted by the defense attorneys.
“He said it was a preliminary report and that he was just looking at suspicious activity, but he never said that this is money laundering,” the sources said. “When you have a final report, you already have your own conclusions, but when the report is preliminary, it means that the investigation is advancing, it has not concluded. Therefore, taking a verdict based on this report is absurd. They cannot convict someone when it is a preliminary report because maybe, in the end, it turns out that you are not guilty – if this were not a political trial – “, they stressed.
The main conclusions of the document by the Ortega Police expert indicate that the former president of the FVBCh allegedly “used other investigators to serve as necessary collaborators for the theft of funds from donations.” In addition, there is an amount of 2.2 million córdobas and 303,003.76 dollars of which “their alternative work or economic activity that originated this monetary compensation is unknown.”
However, the defense argues that these statements are provisional, to the point that the “bank deposits do not have time, date, nor the branches in which they made the deposit, nothing. How are you going to come and say that you received 500 córdobas in your account, if I don’t tell you what day they were deposited and what time?” they questioned.
Expert was certified by USAID, the main donor of the FVBCh
Even when showing his technical credentials to support his suitability as a certified public accountant, Captain Ramírez Carrión presented a training certificate from an auditing course financed by the United States Agency for International Development, known as USAID-for its acronym. in English, who was the main contributor to the projects of the Chamorro Foundation. Asked if he considered USAID resources to be illicit, replied that under no circumstances could it be considered dirty money.
The report also indicates that the money that entered the Foundation came out as “support for financed media outlets, in order to create programs that, using false news, will destabilize the Government and to avoid being detected, they created a facade of appearance legal, when in reality, the Foundation underhandedly financed televised media or through digital and radio platforms with the aim of maintaining the flow of funds between the Foundation and the coup groups and opportunist media.”
Among the communication media mentioned include Canal 12, 100% Noticias, communication radios, CONFIDENTIAL, which according to the regime’s accusation, were financed with USAID funds, with the aim of “creating a media opposition bloc” to affect the State of Nicaragua. This version of the Public Ministry agrees with the narrative of the Ortega regime that claims to have been the victim of a failed coup, making invisible the orchestrated repression against the civic rebellion of April 2018.
Migob with contradictory report
On Wednesday, Franya Urey Blandón, head of the Directorate for Registration and Control of Associations of the Ministry of the Interior (Migob), during her testimony at the trial, acknowledged that she “was unaware” of the “specific reasons” for the accusations against political prisoners, but he also pointed out that this state entity was unaware of the origin of the Foundation’s funds.
In the brief report —in the possession of CONFIDENTIAL— point out that the Foundation violated the Foreign Agents Regulation Law because it did not register as such, despite being “obliged” because “they receive funds from the United States.” However, the same document states that —based on an “analysis of the financial statements for the 2015-2019 periods”— the FVBCh “did not specify the origin, execution and destination of the funds”, although they indicate that the donations came from the United States. USA and Switzerland.
Luis Hernández Mendoza, Migob’s financial analyst, and who was summoned on Wednesday, also failed to explain what techniques he used to identify the alleged “irregularities” found in the Foundation’s financial reports.
Throughout the trial, 20 police officers, two Migob workers, and nine citizens have testified. The latter affirmed that their relationship with the FVBCh was totally honest, transparent and correct. While in the case of the police agents the contradictions, gaps and ignorance about the investigations of the case were evident.
nine months in prison
The former president of the FVBCh was arrested on June 2 of last year. She was accused of the alleged crimes of abusive management, ideological falsehood in real competition with “money laundering”, after a State report indicated that the Foundation supposedly transferred funds for the strengthening of media between 2017-2020 to people and organizations that they seek “the destabilization of the smooth running of the country’s economic and social development.”
The main point of the accusation is that the FVBCh allegedly received 150 million cordobas from donors between 2015 and 2019, but they had 190 million cordobas in the banking system.
Judge does not specify where Róger Reyes and Alex Hernández will pay sentence
Among the beneficiaries for the alleged destabilization of the Nicaraguan Executive, the Prosecutor’s Office listed 13 independent media outlets, four non-governmental organizations and seven journalists.
