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On the night of Sunday, March 22, 2026, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo released a series of images of Bayardo Arce Castaño, former presidential advisor on economic affairs, in which he appears extremely emaciated. The former guerrilla commander has been in “La Modelo” prison in Managua for nearly eight months.
Pro-government media released video stills of a meeting between the former Sandinista commander and his brother Gerardo Arce, who in January 2026 was “forced to resign” as a Supreme Court justice and is currently under “investigation,” serving house arrest.
The images accompany a press release from the Ministry of the Interior, which reported that the meeting between the Arce Castaño brothers, both prisoners, took place on Friday, March 20, 2026.
In early March, Bayardo Arce’s six children demanded—through a public letter—a “public proof of life” for the former member of the FSLN National Directorate.
According to family members, the former presidential advisor “has been subjected to conditions and treatment that constitute physical and psychological torture,” such as total isolation and physical restraint punishments.
In its press release, the Ministry of the Interior described the statements made by Arce’s children as “malicious.” “Any other idea or publication reflects the clear and irresponsible intention to discredit and undermine the National Penitentiary System of the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior,” the institution stated.
Arrest and Charges Against Bayardo Arce
Bayardo Arce was arrested on the night of Wednesday, July 30, 2025, when dozens of officers from the Special Operations Directorate (DOE) raided his home, south of Villa Fontana in Managua, and transferred him to the National Penitentiary System.
In late January 2026, the Ortega dictatorship’s judiciary convicted Bayardo Arce of the alleged crime of “money laundering, in the form of defrauding the State of Nicaragua,” according to a statement from the Attorney General’s Office (PGJ). In addition, all of his companies were shut down and all of his assets were confiscated.
Bayardo Arce served as a deputy in the National Assembly for the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) for ten consecutive years: from 1997 to 2007.
That changed in early January 2007, when Ortega assumed the presidency of Nicaragua and appointed Arce as his economic advisor, a role that gave him a prominent position in coordinating the economic cabinet and in relations between the Ortega government and major private-sector business leaders.
However, he began to be sidelined from the start of Daniel Ortega’s third consecutive presidential term (2017–2021), during a period of uncertainty over his role and rising prominence of Murillo, who by then was already vice president. Despite this, the former member of the historic FSLN leadership remained in the position of presidential adviser on Economic and Financial Affairs, a role he still holds formally.
In the political sphere, Bayardo Arce served as the FSLN’s party representative at the Supreme Court of Justice from 1997, when the FSLN was still in opposition, until he was removed from that role following an intervention ordered by Rosario Murillo in October 2023, and replaced by Fidel Moreno, the FSLN’s organization secretary.
Before being sent to La Modelo prison, Arce was the third former member of the FSLN National Directorate on whom the “co-presidents” had imposed a de facto house arrest, along with former revolutionary commander Henry Ruiz Hernández (“Modesto”).
Another former member of the FSLN National Directorate, Humberto Ortega Saavedra—former head of the Army and brother of Daniel Ortega Saavedra—died on September 30, 2024, as a “political prisoner,” after being arrested and isolated in his home for questioning Ortega’s dynastic succession in favor of Murillo.
