AA
Share
The head of Nicaragua’s police, First General Commissioner Francisco Díaz Madriz, together with General Commissioner Victoriano Ruiz Urbina, who leads the National Police’s Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), will now hold the authority to arrest individuals accused of property crimes, according to an unofficial National Police circular.
The alleged instruction, directed to police delegation chiefs, national specialty heads, and support bodies, states that “before executing judicial orders or official letters involving the seizure or occupation of assets due to debts or the eviction of properties,” prior authorization must be obtained from Díaz Madriz and Ruiz Urbina.
Díaz, whose daughter is married to one of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s sons, has held the position since 2018, replacing Aminta Granera. Ruiz Urbina, meanwhile, was appointed head of the DAJ in September 2023. Both are included in the list of 54 senior officials held responsible for repression in Nicaragua, compiled by the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) and published on April 3, 2025, in Geneva, Switzerland.
The supposed circular, dated May 4, 2025, establishes that to occupy property—land plots, vehicles, or other assets—authorization from both police chiefs is required “when dealing with reports of crimes such as fraudulent conveyance, fraud, or illegal occupation of private property.”
The same applies to the execution of arrest warrants for property-related crimes (fraud, fraudulent conveyance, or those tied to property or debt issues). Requests for such authorization must be backed by an operational assessment, input from territorial networks, profiles of the individuals involved, and information about the judges who issued the orders or warrants.
“This last clarification is typical of police procedures, meant to reinforce territorial control,” a source familiar with Nicaragua’s internal control systems told CONFIDENCIAL. “What the text describes is what the police already routinely do.”
Impunity in writing
This police practice poses a risk of further discouraging loans and development projects, given that the Judicial Branch is now subject to the discretion of police chiefs.
“It increases the risks of impunity,” explained a businessman who spoke to CONFIDENCIAL on condition of anonymity. The risk for a bank or commercial entity is that anyone who commits fraud, diverts collateral, or decides not to honor a mortgage guarantee can escape justice—if they have the right police contacts.
This person “will be exempted from complying with the sentences of the judges, who will be subordinated to the will of two police chiefs. This will cause the placement of credits to decrease enormously,” he said.
A lawyer who has had to resort to the police authority to carry out evictions or occupations of properties that were pledged to a bank, recalled that “the police do not obey court orders anyway. And then, when the citizen or his lawyer complained, they told him that they had no order from their commanders to act”.
“In the case of the banks, they have agreements with the police high command so that they can proceed to carry out the arrests, seizures or evictions,” he said.
His interpretation of the circular is that “it’s telling bankers they must ask police authorities for permission for officers to accompany a judge in executing a seizure. In practice, this means it’s Ortega who grants or denies permission—and it’s proof of interference in the system of legal guarantees,” he added.
He emphasized that the document “puts on paper what is already known, what’s been standard practice in Nicaragua for some time. What banker, investor, or international funder is going to lend money to a Nicaraguan bank?” he questioned.
