
15 de May 2025
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Former high official of the Ortega government was arrested by DAJ agents at his farm in Tuma La Dalia, and transferred to the Modelo prison in Tipitapa.
Imagen de archivo del general de brigada en retiro, Álvaro Baltodano Cantarero, brinda una conferencia de prensa como presidente de ProNicaragua. // Foto: Tomada de El 19 Digital
Retired brigadier general Álvaro Baltodano Cantarero was arrested by a police unit from the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ) on the morning of Wednesday, May 14, at his farm in Tuma La Dalia, Matagalpa. He was taken to the “Jorge Navarro” penitentiary complex, commonly known as “La Modelo,” in Tipitapa, near Managua.
Producers in Matagalpa told CONFIDENCIAL that Baltodano was arrested during a raid at his property, “Los Milagros,” located in the El Guapotal area. DAJ officers confiscated his computer, cellphone, and other communication devices.
“General Baltodano was identified in the city of Matagalpa while being transported in DAJ police vehicles headed to the Modelo prison in Managua,” said one producer.
Local sources ruled out any legal accusations against Baltodano. “He didn’t have any conflicts or disputes over financial matters,” they said, attributing his arrest to “orders from above, for political reasons.”
Twenty-four hours after Baltodano’s arrest, there has been no official statement from the National Police, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, or the co-presidency of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo explaining the reasons behind his detention.
Álvaro Baltodano was a guerrilla commander with the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and took part in the 1979 uprising in Matagalpa as one of the leaders of the Northern Front. He joined the Sandinista Popular Army in July 1979 and held high-ranking positions during the 1980s conflict between the Contras and the Sandinista army.
He retired from the military in April 2000, and afterward became actively involved with the FSLN, which was then in the opposition.
Together with retired colonel Lenin Cerna—then the FSLN’s organizational secretary—and former Managua mayor Dionisio Marenco (who died in 2020), Baltodano became one of Daniel Ortega’s most trusted political actors.
During the 2001 election campaign, he served as the FSLN’s coordinator for the “Concertación” alliance with various political groups and was one of Ortega’s main political operators. In the 2006 campaign, he represented the FSLN in the United Nicaragua Triumphs Alliance.
After Ortega’s electoral victory in 2006, Baltodano was appointed president of the National Free Trade Zones Commission. From 2009 to 2017, along with presidential economic advisor Bayardo Arce, he served as a key liaison between the Ortega regime and Nicaragua’s top business leaders under the so-called “dialogue and consensus model.”
On October 31, 2022, Álvaro Baltodano was removed from his role as “Presidential Delegate Minister for Investment Promotion and Foreign Trade Facilitation,” a position he had held since January 2017.
Days before his dismissal, the National Assembly—controlled by Ortega-Murillo loyalists—approved the closure of the Investment and Export Promotion Agency (ProNicaragua). Founded in 2002 as a joint public-private agency, ProNicaragua was also led by Baltodano.
ProNicaragua’s financial resources, assets and functions were transferred to the Secretariat of Investment and Export Promotion, created through a law approved on October 27, 2022.
At ProNicaragua, Álvaro Baltodano worked alongside presidential investment advisor Laureano Facundo Ortega Murillo, son of Ortega and Murillo, who later assumed all the duties of the retired general and became Advisor for Investment, Trade and International Cooperation to the Presidency.
Since his departure from the Government in 2022, Álvaro Baltodano retired from public political activities in the Frente Sandinista party.
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