The head of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s bodyguard has been dishonorably dismissed and will be tried for “insubordination” and other serious charges, police said Wednesday.
“General Commissioner Marcos Alberto Acuña Avilés flagrantly disobeyed superior orders […]he was given a dishonorable discharge and will be tried for the crimes of dereliction of duty, disobedience and insubordination,” the police said in a statement.
Opposition media outlets published in exile claimed that the officer was the head of Ortega’s escort.
The statement did not mention whether Acuña was under arrest. The rank of general commissioner is the highest among police officers in Nicaragua, equivalent to general in other countries.
With 25 years in the police force, Acuña became the head of the presidential escort in 2007 when Ortega returned to power democratically, according to the opposition newspaper El Confidencial, which is published in Costa Rica. Since then, the president has been re-elected in elections questioned by the international community.
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The same outlet, citing unnamed police sources, said Acuña’s dismissal was a decision made by Ortega’s vice president and wife, Rosario Murillo.
“Acuña’s downfall, ordered by Murillo, occurred after ‘he had an argument with the vice president’ on July 24, regarding a situation and a topic that they could not identify,” wrote El Confidencial.
Police did not provide further details of what happened in their statement.
Former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), exiled in the United States, Arturo McFields, commented on the social network X that Acuña’s dismissal “should open the eyes of thousands of police officers” in Nicaragua.
“Ortega embraces them, promotes them, asks them to kill in his name, until the day comes when they are no longer useful to him and he throws them away. Dictators have no friends. Acuña understood this too late,” said McFields.
