The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has extended its repression beyond those considered opponents, imprisoning historical figures and loyal Sandinista allies who have fallen out of favor in various \u201cpurges.\u201d Former guerrilla commanders, ex-officials, former military and police personnel, and public employees have been accused of \u201ctreason,\u201d conspiring against the regime, conducting \u201ctransactions outside the State,\u201d or engaging in alleged acts of corruption. <\/p>\n\n
According to opposition figures, these arrests are part of a strategy to eliminate any dissent within the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) itself and constitute a \u201cpreventive strike,\u201d<\/a> driven by Murillo\u2019s fear, insecurity, and paranoia, aimed at exercising power without any internal checks, in the event of Ortega\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n\n Public employees, former Sandinista militants, and ex-military personnel who spoke to CONFIDENCIAL<\/strong> under anonymity describe a climate of \u201cfear\u201d and report \u201cdeep unrest\u201d among the party\u2019s base. They note that \u201canyone can fall from grace\u201d and see their \u201chead roll\u201d under Murillo\u2019s \u201cguillotine.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n \u201cIt seems to me that these purges, which now include high-ranking Sandinistas, are part of Mrs. Murillo\u2019s fear that, upon Ortega\u2019s death, all the people who have historically been party members will not support her or her children, or that they might organize a movement against them,\u201d says Gladys<\/em>, a former municipal official who is now distanced from the FSLN.<\/p>\n\n The purges of two political and economic operatives, traditional allies of Ortega, have generated widespread fear within the sector known as historical Sandinismo. Presidential advisor Bayardo Arce Casta\u00f1o, another member of the FSLN National Directorate in the 1980s and one of the few who had remained close to Ortega, was arrested at his home by dozens of police officers<\/a> at midnight on Wednesday, July 30, 2025. Earlier, in June, retired General \u00c1lvaro Baltodano,<\/a> former Presidential advisor between 2007 and 2022, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. <\/p>\n\n For Gladys<\/em>, who received a decoration years ago for her Sandinista militancy, the message the dictatorship is sending to all its supporters is \u201cthat no one is untouchable and that anyone can fall under Rosario Murillo\u2019s guillotine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cI believe these purges are dividing Sandinismo even more\u2014between those who reluctantly support Rosario Murillo and those who are waiting for the regime to fall when she is left alone,\u201d adds the former public employee.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n Gladys<\/em> admits that what is happening now is a \u201cgreater concentration of power among certain groups\u201d loyal to Murillo, who \u201cwill continue intimidating the population, public workers, and party members,\u201d sending the clear warning: \u201cYou\u2019re with her, or you go to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n\n On August 6, 2025, during the first legislative session, the dictatorship approved a constitutional reform creating the Office of the Attorney General. The government says its goal is to \u201ccombat corruption.<\/a>\u201d However, Gladys<\/em> believes that \u201cit is only a smokescreen to justify the purges.\u201d <\/p>\n\n \u201cLoyalty has never been rewarded within Sandinismo; backstabbing and disloyalty have always been encouraged, but now they are promoting it even more (\u2026) Their goal will not be to fight corruption, because they have allowed it for years. What they will do is go after the traitors within their own ranks,\u201d warns this former official.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n Karina<\/em> has more than ten years of experience working in the accounting department of a public institution and describes the purges as \u201csettling scores,\u201d both by Ortega and Murillo.<\/p>\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredible that they want to sell these imprisonments and the disgrace of high-ranking officials as a fight against corruption, because anyone can ask themselves where they were all this time that they never noticed anything,\u201d she points out.<\/p>\n\n The Attorney General\u2019s Office, run by Wendy Morales Urbina, a loyal ally of Rosario Murillo<\/a> who has become the dictatorship\u2019s executioner institution in Nicaragua, accused Bayardo Arce of failing to appear before an investigation into \u201ctransactions and negotiations\u201d conducted by his offices that \u201cdid not comply with legal regulations\u201d under Nicaraguan law. Five hours later, he was arrested. <\/p>\n\n That same institution, exactly three months after \u00c1lvaro Baltodano\u2019s capture<\/a>, accused him, along with his son detained in July 2025, of being part of a corporate scheme involving approximately \u201c20 shell companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cEven assuming that these people who fell in the purges were corrupt, they would have had to have the dictatorship\u2019s support, because here no one acts without their approval\u2014or else they are admitting they were incompetent in detecting the thieves,\u201d Karina<\/em> says.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n This public official believes that if there were truly a crusade against corruption, \u201cthey would have to imprison the entire Ortega-Murillo family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cI fought in the war for a better country, but what we really see now is the division of the pie between Ortega, Murillo, and their children. Those who had been invited into that small circle are now excluded and not only that\u2014they are humiliated and imprisoned,\u201d says Abraham<\/em>, a former Sandinista combatant from the south of the country.<\/p>\n\n He says he now talks less and less about politics with the small group of demobilized veterans he used to meet with. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of fear; some barely dare to voice a small criticism even in private circles,\u201d he reflects. <\/p>\n\n “We don\u2019t really know what\u2019s happening internally to cause so many purges, but it\u2019s strange that they\u2019re punishing people who helped them stay in power. What we see is that the FSLN now only wants people intimidated and with their heads bowed,\u201d Abraham<\/em> adds.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n \u201cAlthough it has happened before, I think this time they are more focused on establishing a family dynasty like in Cuba and showing everyone that there are no successors outside the Ortega-Murillo family,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n\n Gregorio<\/em>, a former officer of the Sandinista Popular Army in the 1980s who retired in 1995, believes that those most affected by the arrests and persecution orchestrated by Rosario Murillo are people who for many years were seen as leaders within the FSLN, the so-called \u201chistorical\u201d Sandinistas.<\/p>\n\n \u201cSome say they\u2019re old allies of Rosario Murillo from the 1980s. But they don\u2019t consider that Murillo is purging potential adversaries who could challenge her power once Daniel Ortega dies, at which point she could realize her long-cherished dream of becoming president, with her children as vice presidents,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n He notes that there is no real fight against corruption within the party and that it is only \u201ca pretext used by the dictatorship\u201d to justify \u201cthe hunt for historical figures who are key references of Sandinismo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Gregorio<\/em> believes Murillo will continue removing \u201canything that smells like historical Sandinismo and doesn\u2019t answer to her,\u201d although he adds that this doesn\u2019t mean the rest of the population \u201cisn\u2019t also being watched, spied on, and persecuted.\u201d \u201cThe war declared is against everyone,\u201d insists the former EPS officer. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n For Ariel<\/em>, a former FSLN member, there is \u201cvisible discontent\u201d among the Sandinista grassroots who began supporting the party in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n \u201cWhispered conversations in supermarkets, hospitals, restaurants, and other public places are the norm, as people express anger, disapproval, and condemnation,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n He notes that in Matagalpa, his hometown, Sandinistas \u201cfeel particularly aggrieved\u201d by the purges of figures involved in the insurrection and the early stages of the revolution.<\/p>\n\n \u201cEveryone knows that illicit enrichment through corruption tolerated from El Carmen has become normalized. But for thieves to suddenly pose as crusaders against theft? No one buys it,\u201d he asserts.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n Ariel <\/em>believes that the persecution and surveillance is for the entire population, because it transcends Sandinismo and the public sector. “I know many former intelligence or public officials who are under permanent surveillance, and people forty years old or younger, without any militancy, who are forced to report their movements”, he mentions. <\/p>\n\n Mariela<\/em> describes the fall of figures from the FSLN National Directorate, such as commanders Bayardo Arce and Henry Ruiz<\/a>\u2014effectively under house arrest since March 8, 2025\u2014as \u201clike the collapse of cathedrals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cI think they have inadvertently created martyr figures within Sandinismo itself,\u201d says this public-sector worker, who identifies as a former Sandinista.<\/p>\n\n Mariela<\/em> adds that there is talk that both Ortega and Murillo are weakened, \u201ceven though they try to project an image of eternity with these organized acts carried out in a fascist style.\u201d<\/p>\n\n A citizen who asked to be identified as Tolomeo Vargas,<\/em> who was linked to the FSLN\u2019s political and military structures in the seventies and eighties, says that after speaking with people still in the party, he concludes there is \u201ca double standard among Sandinistas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cOn one hand, there are those who remain silent out of fear or convenience, though they don\u2019t approve. On the other hand, there is another segment, mostly at the grassroots level, more fanatical and slow to accept reality, but ultimately they end up acknowledging what is happening,\u201d explains this man, now a small business owner.<\/p>\n\n Tolomeo<\/em> notes that despite Sandinistas\u2019 resistance to admitting they are ruled by a tyranny, there is a \u201cclear feeling of confusion and dissatisfaction.\u201d They recognize that this is \u201ca power struggle,\u201d which translates into Ortega and Murillo \u201cclearing the path for dynastic succession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cThis is not a crusade against corruption, nor the recent laws, nor the arrest of prominent Sandinistas; it responds to a dictatorial political objective of the \u2018co-dictators\u2019 to secure their family project,\u201d he warns.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n In its December 2024 report, the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua warned that at least 25 state employees and Sandinista sympathizers<\/a> were being arbitrarily detained.<\/p>\n\n The report also noted that the number could be higher, as families of these individuals did not report the arrests \u201cbecause they are threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n According to the Mechanism, these detentions are a \u201cclear reflection\u201d that the dictatorship \u201cis increasing persecution even within its own ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n\nThe message: \u201cNo One Is Untouchable\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re with Rosario Murillo, or You Go to Prison\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
“If you punish corruption, they should be in jail.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
Dictatorship “increases persecution” within its ranks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
A Hard Blow to \u201cHistorical\u201d Sandinistas<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
Anger and Disapproval\u2026 But in Silence<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
“Surveillance is permanent”<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
Double discourse among Sandinistas<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
25 Public Workers and Sandinistas Detained<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n