The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has been silent for the last six months in the face of the findings of this journalistic investigation of CONFIDENTIALwhich reveals the business group of his family’s businesses, made up of 22 companies, in which five lawyers and eighteen close executives participate as partners, shareholders or figureheads.
On the morning of August 6, 2021, Vice President Murillo received, in her official email, a questionnaire from CONFIDENTIAL with the main questions after months of investigation, whose findings are supported by documents from the Managua Mercantile Registry and data analysis from the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS). The next response of the hermetic regime was intimidation.
Four hours after sending the mail, two plainclothes police officers arrived at the home of journalist Octavio Enríquez, assigned to the investigation, who was not at home. However, the officers warned the family that he had to appear at the Prosecutor’s Office for an urgent appointment.
On August 20, the reporter revealed that he had made the decision to go into exile. Dozens of reporters, including Enríquez, have been persecuted during the repressive escalation that began at the end of May, the same one that began with the incursion of the Police into the offices of CONFIDENTIALfor the second time since 2018, and subsequently the illegal search of the house of the director Carlos Fernando Chamorro, under false accusations.
These are the questions that Murillo avoided answering:
1. An investigation by CONFIDENCIAL, based on public deeds and minutes of boards of directors, has verified that there are at least 22 companies related to members of the Ortega Murillo family, which operate in close relationship with the State. What is the relationship and participation of the presidential couple with these companies?
2. What role do shareholders Yadira Leets, José María Enríquez Moncada, José Mojica Mejía, Mayling Patricia Alegría Doña and Eduardo Germán Morales have in this network of private companies?
3. If the Ortega government proposed the recovery of companies for the Nicaraguan State such as DNP-Petronic, why is this company under the control of members of the presidential family, after it was acquired with funds from the Venezuelan state cooperation?
4. Lawyer José María Enríquez Moncada, director of several private television channels, controlled by members of his family, acquired 30% of the shares of the company Xinwei Intelcom NIC SA. What relationship does the presidential couple have with Enríquez Moncada and Xinwei? Intelcom NIC SA?
5. Why does NEPISA, a private company related to members of the presidential family, represent Channel 6 if it is a state television station?
6. According to article eight of the Integrity Law, appointments that are related within the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity with the authority that makes the appointment are prohibited. How do you justify the appointment of at least six officials, family related to the presidential couple, in your Government, in violation of the law?
7. Article 130 of the Constitution establishes the direct prohibition of hiring public officials with the State or of obtaining any state concession. Nor can they act as managers and representatives of companies in the same type of cases described above. However, the private companies that manage various members of the presidential family have signed contracts with the state. Will your government investigate these violations of the law and the Constitution?
