Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega called his brother Humberto — whom police placed under “medical surveillance” in his home several days ago — a “traitor” for having decorated the United States military attaché in Managua in 1992.
“He sold his soul to the devil,” Ortega said on Tuesday during an event before dozens of soldiers and police, in the first public allusion to his brother since the controversy broke out 12 days ago, when the retired general offered an interview that apparently irritated the Managua government.
Without mentioning his name, the president said that “the then head of the Army” awarded the United States military attaché, Dennis Quinn, with the Camilo Ortega medal in January 1992, which he described as a “shame” and a “betrayal of the people and the country.”
Camilo Ortega, the youngest of the three brothers, was a guerrilla who died in combat during the final Sandinista insurrection against the military regime of Anastasio Somoza in 1978. The Sandinista army, led by Humberto, created the medal in his honor after the fall of Somoza a year later.
The president also referred to the presidency of Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997) as “a government imposed by the Yankees,” despite the fact that the former president came to power through elections organized by the administration of Daniel Ortega, who had to hand over the government to him in April 1990.
Humberto Ortega, who was already head of the Army, continued in office for five more years during the Chamorro government, until his retirement in 1995.
“The head of the Army at that time committed the sacrilege of giving that order… the Camilo Ortega Saavedra medal for valor to the Yankee, what a shame, what a shame, it was a betrayal to the people, to the country,” said the president during the event held in the Plaza de la Fe Juan Pablo II, in the old center of Managua.
He then read an official decree issued “on behalf of the presidential people,” in which the awarding of the medal to Quinn was “invalidated,” considering the act as an “affront” and an “act of treasonous country-selling.”
Humberto Ortega, 77, gave an interview to the Argentine portal Infobae in which he assured that his brother Daniel has no successors to take over when he dies, and that elections will have to be called with the support of the Army to avoid “a power vacuum” and “chaos” in the country.
After the interview, the newspaper The Press of Managua reported that that day the police surrounded his residence southeast of the capital and confiscated mobile phones and computers.
Although the government has not confirmed that it has the former general under house arrest, local media assure that his home is still under surveillance and that the president’s brother is incommunicado.
Since Daniel Ortega’s return to power in 2007, his brother Humberto has publicly – and unsuccessfully – urged him to promote dialogue and a “nation project” to give political and economic stability to Nicaragua.
After the social rebellion of April 2018, Humberto Ortega criticized the “disproportionate repression” of police and paramilitaries against civilian protesters, which left 355 dead, more than 2,000 injured and thousands of detained, according to human rights organizations.
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