Daniel Ortega’s regime granted Nicaraguan nationality on Thursday to Dolores Ivette Sánchez Villalta, daughter of former Salvadoran President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, and to William Oswaldo Vaquero León, personal assistant to the former president, widening in Nicaragua the circle of relatives and allies of the former president who evade the justice of their country, where they are investigated by alleged crimes of illicit enrichmentembezzlement and money laundering.
According to certification 3308 of the Directorate of Immigration and Immigration published in La Gaceta this Thursday, April 7, Sánchez Villalta —who served as general director of Social Development of the Foreign Ministry during the Government of his father— upon being nationalized “ It will enjoy all the rights and prerogatives that the (Nicaraguan) laws grant it.” Likewise, certification 3309 grants Nicaraguan nationality to Vaquero León.
As Nicaraguans are nationalized, none of the former Salvadoran officials may be extradited, since this is established by the Political Constitution of Nicaragua in its article 43.
Sánchez Cerén —former guerrilla commander of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN)— has been in Nicaragua since November 2020, according to Nayib Bukele administration officials.
Nationalization of the Cerén
In July 2021, the former president was also nationalized Sanchez Cerenhis wife Rosa Margarita Villalta, his daughter Claudia Lissette Sánchez Villalta, and his grandson Juan Carlos Guardado Sánchez, also related to a corruption case in El Salvador.
In August of that same year, Nicaraguans were also nationalized: Salvador Antonio Sánchez Villalta, son of the former Salvadoran president, Alejandra Sofía Guardado Sánchez and Carlos Manuel Pacheco Guardado, granddaughter and great-grandson of Sánchez Cerén.
According to the Salvadoran Prosecutor’s Office, Sánchez Cerén received 530,000 dollars when he served as vice president of President Mauricio Funes (2009-2014), who has six arrest warrants for various acts of corruption. Funes fled to Nicaragua in September 2016, and in July 2019 he received Nicaraguan nationality along with his wife and two of his children.
Along with Sánchez Cerén, nine other former government officials were charged in July 2021 for allegedly receiving irregular payments or “bonuses” during the Administration of Funes —also from the FMLN—, who according to the Justice embezzled some 351 million dollars from the state budget.
The Salvadoran digital newspaper El Faro published an investigation nine years ago about the existence of “bonuses”, a mechanism to hide the real remuneration received by ministers, deputy ministers and some heads of decentralized and autonomous institutions with funds from a secret allocation of the Presidential House, a cash supplement for which they did not pay tax about rent.
