7 de enero 2025
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Forty days after opposition leader Henry Briceño and his family were exiled from Nicaragua and their properties confiscated, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo announced the opening of a White Cross branch in the house where Briceño’s family had lived for over 20 years. The property had been rented out by the family for the past three years.
The White Cross was established after the Ortega-Murillo regime stripped the Nicaraguan Red Cross of its legal status in May 2023.
“Following the orders of Commander Daniel and Comrade Rosario, starting January 10, 2025, we will inaugurate the White Cross branch in San Rafael del Sur (…) located two blocks west of the central park,” said Denis Centeno, General Director of the White Cross, during a press conference on January 2, 2025.
Centeno explained that the facility would provide “24-hour emergency care” and “driver’s license exam services, just as we do at our other branches.”
However, Centeno did not acknowledge that the property was confiscated on November 24, 2024, along with three other properties belonging to Briceño and his family.
The house appropriated by the White Cross is valued at $120,000, according to Briceño. The property consists of 236 square meters of construction and is located in a high-value area in San Rafael del Sur, Managua.
Since 2018, the Ortega regime has illegally confiscated hundreds of properties belonging to individuals, companies, media outlets, NGOs, universities, business chambers, and churches.
The preliminary cost of these confiscations of private property, ordered by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) administration since 2018, is estimated to exceed $250 million, according to research published by the Pro Transparency and Anti-Corruption Observatory (OPTA).
Henry Briceño: “It was all premeditated”
Briceño believes the speed with which the regime established the White Cross branch in his family’s property demonstrates that the confiscation was “premeditated and carefully planned.”
“I think this move against us had been in the works for a long time. How else could they take the house and install the White Cross within a month? That means all the equipment and arrangements were ready—they were just waiting for the house. I don’t think this was improvised,” he emphasized.
Briceño also noted that the confiscated property is registered in his daughter’s name. Since being exiled, he has not received any legal documentation indicating that the property was transferred to the State of Nicaragua.
Abandoned in the Mountains
Henry Briceño and his family were detained by San Rafael del Sur police on Sunday, November 24, 2024, forcibly removed from Nicaragua, and clandestinely expelled. Police agents seized all their properties and businesses.
In a December 6, 2024, interview on La Tertulia, a CONFIDENCIAL program, Briceño recounted the events of that day. Shortly after lunch, four police patrols with 20 officers arrived at his home, led by San Rafael del Sur Police Chief Commissioner Lázaro Clemente Quintanilla Álvarez.
The police chief accused Briceño of being the opposition leader in the city and surrounding areas. He informed Briceño of his immediate arrest and exile. When Briceño asked to notify his wife, who was inside the house, the officers stormed the residence violently.
The family was forcibly separated: his wife and daughter were placed in one police vehicle, while Briceño and his son were put in another. They were taken to the Rivas police station, where they were transferred to different vehicles and transported to the border.
The convoy followed a path parallel to the Peñas Blancas border, traveling about two kilometers into the mountains. There, they encountered National Army personnel and were ordered out of the vehicles. “At first, I thought they were going to kill us because we were in the middle of the mountains,” Briceño said.
The family was forced to walk further into the mountains before being lined up. The officers took photos and videos of them with their phones, called out their names, and handed them newly issued passports dated that same day. Finally, they were told, “Get out of here, you sons of…”
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.
