Accusations against the UCA: Terrorism, treason and conspiracy

The confiscation order against the Central American University (UCA) is based on an official letter issued by Judge Gloria María Saavedra Corrales, who accuses – without evidence – the alma mater of the alleged crimes of terrorism, treason, and conspiracy.

According to the holder of the Tenth Criminal District Court of Hearings Managua District, during the civic protests of 2018, the UCA “functioned as a center of terrorism, taking advantage of the conditions created with lies, to raise the levels of violence and destruction, organizing armed and masked criminal groups.”

These alleged groups “used terrorist methods” and “destroyed public universities, public and private buildings.” Likewise, they committed “criminal activities with firearms, lethal ammunition, mortars, Molotov bombs, and blunt objects, causing substantial economic losses to the country,” according to the official document in possession of CONFIDENCIAL.

Of all these accusations, the Ortega judge does not present a single piece of evidence. Saavedra Corrales has been in charge of the proceedings against several priests, some of them already released and banished; others are still in prison or under “investigation.”

In a press release, the Jesuit university described the accusations that they functioned “as a center of terrorism”  as “unfounded.”

“In view of all this, the UCA reiterates its commitment to Nicaraguan society for a high quality higher education and faithful to its founding principles for 63 years,” according to the press release.

Dictatorship may go after directors

Saavedra Corrales affirms that the university has betrayed “the trust of the Nicaraguan people, who welcomed them in our country to function as an institution of higher education.”

“For this reason,” she continues, “they are and continue to be traitors to the Nicaraguan people. These incidents of violence left sequels of mourning and pain in Nicaraguan families.”

The judge describes that the UCA “has been directed, until today, by groups of people who have transgressed the constitutional order, the legal order and the order governing institutions of higher education.”

“The Central American University (UCA), through its main directors, has continuously attacked the independence, peace, national sovereignty, and self-determination of the Nicaraguan people,” according to the judge.

These executives – who are not named – are accused of committing “crimes against national integrity, among others, to the detriment of Nicaraguan society and the State, damaging the unity of the country, the family and the community.”

The accusation of conspiracy against “national integrity” is used by the dictatorship's justice system to detain, try and sentence hundreds of political prisoners in Nicaragua.

“What worries me most about the accusations of terrorism is that, at least in the legal sense, the criminal responsibility of legal persons falls on individual people. That is, against the directors of the UCA,” explained former judicial official Yader Morazán, a specialist in the administration of justice, on the social network X, formerly Twitter.

“And since the preparatory acts of incrimination have already begun, at any moment they could capture their directors and/or administrative personnel because they already have a ‘legal justification’,” he added.

 Seizure of money, assets, and property

The judicial order was received on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 15, and is addressed to the rector of the UCA, priest Rolando Enrique Alvarado López. The document orders the seizure of four properties of the UCA, that “are registered in Managua, as well as any other real estate that it may have in its favor.”

In addition, the document orders “the seizure of all movable property owned” by the UCA, “subject or not to registration before a public office, whether they are inside or outside such properties; among these: rolling equipment, office equipment and furniture, computer assets, physical and digital books and records, money.”

The Ortega-loyal judge also ordered the seizure of “all money, whether in local or foreign currency from the frozen bank accounts, certificates of deposit, whether in local or foreign currency, and bonds and other financial instruments negotiable in a stock market.” 

According to the official letter, it establishes “the seizure of all the aforementioned in favor of the State of the Republic of Nicaragua, which will guarantee the continuity of all the educational programs.”

Likewise, the court sent notices to the Public Registry of Real Estate and Commercial Property, to the Superintendence of Banks, to the National Directorate of Registries, to the National Police, and to the Attorney General's Office of the Republic, “for the purposes of its charges.”

This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by our staff.