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Sources linked to the Penitentiary System confirmed the arrest of two former military officers in La Modelo prison in Tipitapa, where they are under investigation for the alleged crime of “treason against the homeland.”
Those purged are retired General Rodrigo González García, arrested in Matagalpa on September 18, 2025, who specialized in Logistics and for years served as head of the Directorate of Doctrine and Teaching; and retired Captain Jorge Danilo Portocarrero Argüello, arrested in Jinotepe, who in the 1980s headed the Army’s Audiovisuals Department within the Political Directorate.
In an earlier version of this story, CONFIDENCIAL mistakenly identified retired Colonel Noel Portocarrero Argüello, brother of Jorge Portocarrero, as one of those detained. We apologize to Noel Portocarrero Argüello, who has not been detained or investigated by the authorities.
Retired General Rodrigo González currently worked as a coffee producer. His last public appearance at an Army event was on January 28, 2025, during a ceremony with authorities, business leaders, producers, exporters, merchants, and transport operators from the departments of Matagalpa and Jinotega.
He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in August 2002, on the same date as current Army chief General Julio César Avilés. He retired in 2005.
As for Jorge Danilo Portocarrero Argüello, after leaving the Army as a captain in the early 1990s, he spent several decades working as a businessman in advertising and communications companies. He was also a professor at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua).
On August 11, 2023, he was appointed “Minister Counselor with consular functions” at Nicaragua’s Embassy in Cuba. However, four days later his appointment was revoked, according to a ministerial resolution published in La Gaceta on August 15. Sources from the Foreign Ministry revealed that Portocarrero declined the post after learning of his appointment.
“The investigation against the ex-military is part of Compañera Rosario’s distrust. She believes that former Army officers are loyal to the comandante and not to her, even though she now exercises co-presidency,” a source linked to the FSLN Secretariat in El Carmen told CONFIDENCIAL.
The Purge of Ex-Military
Rosario Murillo has led a constant “political decapitation” of figures once close and loyal to Ortega, in order to consolidate her own influence within the inner circle of power. Murillo’s “guillotine” has reached high-ranking figures inside the Army.
These are some of the former military officers persecuted, along with Ortega’s “loyalists” who have been purged:
The Persecuted
Roberto Samcam: Retired Army major, gunned down by hitmen at his home in San José on Thursday, June 19, 2025. The investigation into his murder remains open.
Carlos Brenes: Retired Army colonel, former political prisoner of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship in 2018, was arrested again on Friday, August 15, 2025, at his home between Masatepe and Jinotepe.
Tomás Maldonado: Retired Army major, became a political prisoner of the dictatorship on August 2, 2018. His “crime” was praying for the young people manning barricades in Carazo. He spent ten months in prison and was released under the Amnesty Law in June 2019. He died on June 24, 2021. He was the father of Joao Maldonado, an opposition youth who survived two assassination attempts in Costa Rica.
Hugo Torres: Retired brigadier general, imprisoned on Ortega’s orders since June 2021, died at age 73 on February 12, 2022, after more than two months during which the dictatorship kept his whereabouts and health condition secret.
Aníbal Rivas Reed: Retired captain, sentenced to 50 years in prison in June 2025 for the alleged crime of “treason against the homeland,” after being held in a state of enforced disappearance for 42 days.
The Purged
Lenin Cerna Juárez: Retired colonel, former head of State Security in the 1980s, and FSLN organization secretary since 1999, was removed from his post in April 2011.
At the end of July 2025, media outlets reported that Cerna had escaped a police raid on his home. However, police sources told CONFIDENCIAL that the alleged “escape” was false, and Cerna was later seen in Managua on August 10, riding in a blue Mercedes Benz driven by a police officer and escorted by a police vehicle.
However, one of Cerna’s main lieutenants, retired colonel Rodolfo Castillo “Payín”, was arrested by police on August 1, 2025, during Managua’s horse parades. Since August 25, he has been under house arrest, under police surveillance, and subject to an investigation by the recently renamed Office of the Attorney General of Justice.
Omar Halleslevens Acevedo: Retired Army general and Ortega’s vice president from 2012 to 2016, was ousted from his former offices on Murillo’s orders in May 2023.
Álvaro Baltodano Cantarero: Retired general, arrested in May 2025 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the alleged crime of “treason against the homeland.”
Former Members of the FSLN National Directorate
Humberto Ortega Saavedra: Retired Army general and the dictator’s brother, died at dawn on September 30, 2024, after being under house arrest since May 19 and in total isolation since June 11, on Ortega and Murillo’s orders.
Henry Ruiz “Comandante Modesto”: Former military officer and critic of Ortega and Murillo, long withdrawn from politics, has been under house arrest since March 8, 2025. His last public statement on Nicaragua’s situation was in June 2019, when he called on the Nicaraguan Army to disarm paramilitary groups.
Bayardo Arce Castaño: Presidential economic adviser and former member of the FSLN National Directorate, was arrested at midnight on July 30, 2025. His detention came five hours after the Attorney General’s Office issued a statement accusing him of failing to respond to two interview requests as part of an investigation into “off-the-books transactions.” As of now, he remains imprisoned at an undisclosed location, and has not been formally charged by the Prosecutor’s Office or the newly renamed Office of the Attorney General of Justice.
