On September 2, during the ceremony for the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Nicaraguan Army, dictator Daniel Ortega ordered the promotion of six colonels to the rank of brigadier general, who will now form part of the elite of generals who have shown unconditional loyalty to Sandinismo and to the dictators Ortega and Murillo.
Before this promotion, the command ring in the armed forces was made up of 20 generals.
The vice-dictator and government spokesperson, Rosario Murillo, read out Presidential Agreement 157, which orders the conferral of the rank of brigadier general upon: Leonel Antonio Fonseca Mendoza, Vinicio Felix Chavarria Chavez, Marvin Antonio Paniagua Morales, Alvaro Francisco Rivas Castillo, Francisco Noel Jarquin Lopez and Marco Antonio Salas Cruz.
According to Murillo, the new generals received this promotion for fulfilling the requirements of the Military Career Law and as part of the “process of institutional strengthening of the Nicaraguan Army.”
The vice-dictator also assured that they systematically apply “the fundamental principles that govern the military career and especially those related to ensuring the hierarchical correspondence of the positions of senior command and command of units with the effective military rank of the holders who perform them.”
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During the military ceremony, 23 officers were also promoted to the rank of colonel and one to captain. Before these promotions, it is not known that a significant number of colonels and generals had retired, so, at least until the retirement of generals is known, there will be 27 high-ranking officers with that rank.
Despite Ortega and Murillo’s speech, analysts have reiterated that the dictators have really “tampered” with the Army’s institutionality to suit the dictatorship’s political convenience, starting with the reform of the Military Code to keep the Army Chief in office indefinitely and not for five years as previously established.
Another strong criticism of the Army is its palpable submission to the two dictators and not to the Political Constitution of the Republic as mandated by law. Likewise, the military forces are accused of having been involved in the repression against the Nicaraguan people in 2018, either by providing military personnel dressed in civilian clothes or by providing high-caliber weapons for the exclusive use of the Armed Forces, to be used by paramilitaries.
Avilés reminds his subordinates of the Sandinista origin of the Army
During the promotion ceremony, the Army general and commander in chief of the military corps, Julio César Avilés Castillo, who has been in office for 15 years and who is accused of having completely eliminated the process of military professionalization, once again reminded his subordinates that the Army “is Sandinista” in an attitude that his critics describe as “kneeling before dictators, to show them absolute loyalty.”
Aviléz, who remained silent in the face of the massacres perpetrated with Army weapons in 2018 against unarmed protesters, in every public act before the military and in the presence of his political bosses Ortega and Murillo, mentions that the institution he heads owes its origin to the Sandinista guerrilla and that it is the heritage of the Army in Defense of National Sovereignty, led by Augusto C. Sandino in the 1920s.
Analysts have pointed out that General Avilés shows absolute submission to the dictators and instills said submission in his subordinates, in exchange for the perks assigned to him by the Sandinista dictatorship.
