24 de septiembre 2024
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On September 5, Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega appointed presidential advisor Valdrack Jaentschke as Foreign Minister, while demoting then-Foreign Minister Denis Moncada to the role of presidential advisor. Nine days later, he sent Steadman Fagot, presidential advisor for policies towards indigenous peoples –and whom Ortega had reaffirmed in his post in mid-August– to prison.
These movements show that the position of “presidential advisor” is a “wild card” post within the dictatorship, and that it is used –according to Nicaraguan opposition leaders– to reward, punish, and retire high-ranking officials and militants of the Sandinista Front with high salaries and no concrete responsibilities. During his four consecutive presidential terms, Ortega has appointed 47 presidential advisors, of which only 15 remain “active,” according to a partial review by CONFIDENCIAL based on presidential agreements, lists published in other media, a list released by the government on August 16 of this year, and the dictator's latest changes in his team of advisors.
Of the 47 advisors, only three survive from Ortega's first presidential term from 2007 to 2011: Bayardo Arce, advisor for economic and financial affairs; Manuel Rivas, Security advisor; and Salvador Vanegas, education advisor.
During his current presidential term –which began in 2022– Ortega has appointed eleven presidential advisors. He appointed 14 advisors each in both his first term and between 2017 and 2021. Between 2012 and 2016, he appointed eight.
Twelve advisors in limbo
The status of presidential advisors became relevant in mid-August, after the vice-president and government spokeswoman, Rosario Murillo, read, in her daily monologue, a list of 16 presidential advisors with rank of minister, ratifying them in their positions.
The confirmation of these advisors took place in the midst of a governmental “reorganization,” which up to then had resulted in layoffs of more than 400 employees of the Ministry of Family, Community, Cooperative and Associative Economy (MEFCCA), while others were dismissed in the Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce and the state-owned National University of Engineering.
At the time of Murillo's reading of the communiqué, the dictatorship had 28 officials in the position of presidential advisor, 18 of them with the rank of minister. To date, the regime has not indicated whether the twelve “non-ratified” advisors have been removed from their positions or are exercising other functions within the dictatorship.
Ortega has not published any presidential agreement dismissing any of the twelve unnamed advisors, according to a review by CONFIDENCIAL of the Official Register "La Gaceta" after August 16.
For former presidential candidate and ex-political prisoner Juan Sebastián Chamorro, the twelve advisors “who have not been [officially] ratified or dismissed are going to become unemployed in a more clandestine way, a little more quietly, with little publicity.”
Felix Maradiaga, an ex-political prisoner and former presidential candidate, commented that “the fact that some advisors have not been ratified, but neither have they been officially dismissed, could be interpreted as a de facto dismissal.”
“However,” Maradiaga continued, ”it's important to understand that the dictatorship manages the government at its discretion, using positions of power as mechanisms of rewards and punishments."
“In that context, the absence of mentions does not necessarily imply that these advisors have been purged or removed. In fact, the internal dynamics of the dictatorship suggest that in many cases, keeping certain individuals in positions of power, in ambiguous roles or in marginal roles may be part of a broader strategy,” Maradiaga explained.
Among the twelve advisors not mentioned by Murillo, there are nine who have been in their position between seven and seventeen years. One had been an advisor for two years, another for one year, and the last for a few months.
“It's plausible that those advisors are in a kind of political limbo, where their departure from the immediate environment could represent a punishment, but could also be a reward, depending on the perspective,” Maradiaga stressed. “For some, staying close to the regime may be worse than being fired, while for others, being forgotten could be a form of golden retirement,” added the Nicaraguan political scientist.
Only four women advisors
According to the data analyzed by CONFIDENCIAL, of the 47 advisors, only four have been women. Of these, two –Sonia Castro and Carolina Dávila–remain “active, while the other two –Arlette Marenco and Martha Elena Ruiz– were officially removed in July of this year.
Castro and Dávila are advisors with ministerial rank for health issues, while Marenco and Ruiz were advisors for international relations and policy.
Arlette Marenco had served since 2016 as the regime's Deputy Foreign Minister, and in July 2019 the position of advisor was added to her title. She was removed from both positions by presidential agreement 113-2024, published in the Official Register "La Gaceta" on July 23, 2024. Three sources linked to the FSLN told CONFIDENCIAL that Marenco was removed from her position at the beginning of that month and placed under house arrest, while her husband, Reynaldo Martínez, a former official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was being investigated in El Chipote prison for “corruption activities.”
For almost a decade, Marenco was Murillo's proxy to transmit her orders in the Foreign Ministry and the channel of communication with most of the diplomatic missions.
Martha Elena Ruiz was Minister of Defense between 2014 and 2019. She was appointed advisor, without ministerial rank, on April 30, 2021, to replace Paul Oquist, who had died earlier that month, and with whom she had worked closely in recent years. She is the wife of Nicaraguan Army Chief of Staff, Major General Bayardo Rodríguez Ruiz.
The list of ratified presidential advisors does not include the former Minister of MEFCCA, Justa Pérez, who together with several senior officials of that institution were removed from their posts at the beginning of August, while the Economic Investigations Directorate of the National Police scrutinized their administrative actions and personal finances.
On August 9, Ortega removed Pérez from her position as MEFCCA minister, but that same day appointed her as presidential advisor “for the promotion and development of tourism and tourism enterprises.” Then, a week later, Murillo ratified her as “advisor to the Vice-President for tourism issues,” a position that did not exist in the executive branch's organizational chart.
What do presidential advisors do?
Until 2022, the monthly salary of presidential advisors was between $3,730 and $3,860, according to Nicaragua Investiga based on Social Security data.
The specific roles and responsibilities of the presidential advisors are unknown. Law 290 –the Law of Organization, Competence and Procedures of the Executive Branch–, as well as its regulations, do not establish the tasks of these officials. The only mention is that presidential advisors “shall be appointed by the president of the republic.”
Salvador Vanegas was appointed was advisor with the rank of minister for “all modalities of education” on September 29, 2010. He is the only presidential advisor who frequently appears in public, participating in interviews with state media, directing the presentation of reports –such as one about the school enrollment process– and attending events commemorating the National Literacy Crusade.
During his 17 years in power, Ortega's presidential advisor appointments have gone mainly to ex-military personnel, Sandinista militants or their relatives, and former colleagues from the 1980s.
Another political operativer close to Ortega and Murillo, Néstor Moncada, serves as “advisor” for national security matters and maintains control over the National Police, but his position has never been made official through a presidential agreement.
On December 9, 2021, the United States sanctioned Moncada and his wife and children for acts of corruption, citing him as “national security advisor to the Nicaraguan Ortega-Murillo regime.”
Ortega and Murillo demand 100% loyalty
The fate of the advisors depends on the status of their relationship with the presidential couple. For example, on August 28 of this year, twelve days after Murillo read the ratification decree, the presidential advisor for environmental and natural resources issues, Jaime Incer, was de facto banished when he was prevented from re-entering Nicaragua from the United States.
Incer, now 90 years old, was not mentioned by the First Lady and Vice President in the list she read. According to some sources close to the government, the well-known Nicaraguan biologist and scientist advised Ortega on environmental issues and the interoceanic canal, but “was never taken into account.”
Juan Sebastián Chamorro said that the lack of official dismissals of the twelve advisors –or doing it clandestinely– “is an excuse and a way to get rid of people who were not one hundred percent loyal” to the presidential couple.
Maradiaga agreed with Chamorro and affirmed that “the most relevant quality of any high-level official –whether minister or advisor– to the dictatorial couple, is blind and absolute servility.”
“The Ortega-Murillo regime does not allow any margin of professional autonomy or freedom of judgment. That makes it intellectually impossible for professional advisory functions to be performed properly,” Maradiaga said, who recalled the recent case of presidential advisor Steadman Fagot. Fagot was detained by the Army and handed over to the National Police for alleged links to drug trafficking and organized crime in Honduras.
On January 16, 2017, Steadman Fagot was appointed as presidential advisor for policies towards indigenous peoples, and was ratified in the position by Murillo in August of this year. Fagot's arrest occurred one day after he denounced the invasion and deforestation of indigenous territories on Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast, for which he blamed local authorities and exonerated Ortega and Murillo.
“The regime is unpredictable and is clearly becoming volatile and dangerous even for its closest circle,” Maradiaga warned.
This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by our staff. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.
