In a dizzying race to legalize his dictatorship, Daniel Ortega extended the general’s term until February 21, 2031 Julio Cesar Aviles as head of the Nicaraguan Army, with which the soldier would accumulate 21 years in office, all under Ortega’s command.
Avilés assumed leadership of the Nicaraguan Army in February 2010 and according to current military law He was to hand over the baton to his successor five years later. However, Ortega reformed the law and broke the legal rule of succession that prohibited re-election in office and ordered his retirement once his term in the highest position of the military institution concluded.
On December 21, the Official Gazette La Gaceta published an unusual presidential agreement in which, for the fourth time, Army General Julio César Avilés Castillo was appointed “to the position of commander in chief of the Nicaraguan Army, for a period of six years, and must take office on February 21, 2025.
Ortega’s decree is part of a string of laws and reforms that the Nicaraguan regime has enacted in reverse and that, in the opinion of analysts and opponents, seeks to restructure the Nicaraguan State with a view to pave the succession in power for Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murilloonce the dictator, who suffers from serious illnesses and turned 79 last November, dies or becomes incapacitated.
Among the hastily approved laws is even a constitutional reform that creates the figure of co-president and It would allow Murillo to reach the highest magistracy of the Statewithout Ortega giving up that position.
The dictator also ordered a reform to the Immigration Law that legalizes the stripping of nationality from those he considers “traitors to the country” and authorizes the Immigration authorities to reject the entry into the country of Nicaraguan citizens who, in their opinion, intend to “undermining national sovereignty.”
The legislative offensive at the end of the year included a new Law of Administration of the Monetary and Financial System” that grants broad powers to the Central Bank and the Superintendency of Banks to control banks, and another law to protect those who have been sanctioned by organizations or foreign countries for violation of human rights or authoritarian practices.
Before, last October 31, The Ortega regime approved the “General Law of Convergent Communications”which obliges communication service providers (telephony, internet, television) to deliver “all required information,” including the location of users.
Likewise, at the end of November, The National Assembly reformed the Military Code and extended the mandate of the head of the Army and the National Police from five to six years.
For the ex-guerrilla Dora María Téllez These reforms indicate that the Ortega Murillos “perceive themselves as weak” and They see a threat in the future. “I get the impression that all this salad has to do, mainly, with the need of the Ortega-Murillo family to resolve the dynastic succession of Daniel Ortega,” he said in a social media chat with the journalist and former politician. Michael Mendoza.
“This effort to legalize what they had been doing as a dictatorship seeks to leave the table ready for Rosario Murillo so that she can sustain herself once Daniel Ortega dies or becomes incapacitated,” says a sociologist who asks not to be mentioned by name.
“All the power of the dictatorship revolves around Daniel Ortega as leader and they are very afraid that once that figure disappears, Rosario Murillo will not be able to retain power, as Humberto Ortega warned in his last interview,” he adds.
“And one of their greatest fears,” he adds, “is that they cannot guarantee the loyalty of the Army, one of the main pillars on which the dictatorship is supported and that alone explains the decision to maintain, in a rather strange and artificial way, the General Avilés in the leadership, because they distrust any other military command.”
In an interview with Infobae, Daniel Ortega’s late brother, General Humberto Ortega, attributed to the Army the role of organizing the transition once the Nicaraguan dictator dies, given the impossibility, according to him, of the Ortega-Murillo family or the Sandinista party can fill the power vacuum.
“In the sudden absence of Daniel Ortega,” said Humberto Ortega in what would be his last interview, “There would first be enormous confusion and impossibility, for me, for the civilian part of the government and the party to assume solid power. The Sandinista institutions in the government or the party would not, in my view, have the capacity to fill that void. The only thing that can solve this vacuum, and prevent there from being anarchy and chaos in the country, is the Army. First of all, the Army. Coordinated with the National Police. And look for a solution in the short term, perhaps a year or less, to call an electoral process, whether it is the one scheduled for 2026.”
Daniel Ortega appointed Avilés for the first time as head of the Army in November 2009, replacing General Omar Halleslevens, and with him the natural drainage of the high command ended, while whoever reached the top leadership went into retirement for five years. later and allowed the promotion of lower commands.
Avilés, 68 years old, born in Jinotepe, is a soldier who had a discreet participation in the Sandinista guerrilla that overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.
He was founder of the Sandinista Popular Army (EPS) and during the 80s he was stationed in the northern region of Nicaragua where he participated in the war against the anti-Sandinista guerrillas, called the Nicaraguan Resistance.
Before becoming Commander in Chief of the Nicaraguan Army, Avilés served as head of the military Intelligence and Counterintelligence Directorate (1998-2005) and head of the General Staff (2005-2009).
During the citizen rebellion of 2018, the Army avoided officially participating in the repression, although there were countless complaints from opponents and human rights organizations that pointed out the covert participation of the military and the provision of supplies to the paramilitary army that Ortega organized to violently repress those who protested.
“The biggest sin of the Army, unjust, which damages its image and professionalism, was the tolerance with armed civilians, particularly with paramilitaries, that their security and intelligence apparatus had registered, that they knew where they were, they knew where they moved and that “They even tolerated them arming themselves,” Humberto Ortega said in the interview with Infobae last May.
The United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned General Avilés on May 22, 2020, among other reasons, because he refused to disarm the paramilitary army that, approximately 2,000 strong, attacked the civilian population.
