The Seven Families of Power: Nepotism in Nicaragua

Appointing family members in public office is one of the typical forms of corruption of the regime of Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo. This investigation has identified the extended network of relatives and acquaintances of the presidential couple who are part of the Nicaraguan State, with over 88 verified cases.

By Nicaragua Investiga and CONNECTAS

There are at least seven families close to Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, which are part of their trusted inner circle, their most loyal members at the service of public office. The clans are organized to control the Presidency, the legislative branch, the judicial branch, the National Police, the Customs Directorate and Migration, as well as the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The key positions are filled in with the presidential couple’s most trustworthy individuals, who are then in charge of fulfilling lower hierarchy positions with friends and loyal supporters.

This investigation by Nicaragua Investiga and CONNECTAS maps the extended net of nepotism in at least 21 public institutions, with 88 verified cases, an amount large enough to staff an entire hospital. The investigation focuses on these seven “Families of Power”, albeit mentioning other cases that shine a light on how nepotism permeates public service in Nicaragua.

The cases were validated with a thorough search. Some are vox populi —such as with members of the Ortega-Murillo family— and have been criticized for years. Others have been managed more discreetly, but their implication has been confirmed through official decrees published in La Gaceta (Nicaragua’s official newspaper), in documents of the State General Directorate of Contracting, websites of public entities and pro-government media reports. The investigation has a detailed database for readers to browse the evidence that confirms the positions of these family clans.

“After April 2018, nepotism has become the foundation of the regime,” says Yader Morazan, former official of the judicial branch, an institution in which this investigation found 22 cases. “Favors are being paid to people who were loyal during the repression or in the toughest days of the massacres in Nicaragua,” he adds.

Morazan refers to the repression by the State that took place in April 2018, it was unprecedented in post-war Nicaragua. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) documented that it had resulted in 355 deaths and thousands injured.

The Ortega-Murillo Clan: Nepotism’s Starting Point

The Ortega-Murillo family has enough members for a soccer team of eleven players and five substitutes. At least sixteen members of the presidential clan are embedded in the nepotism network, although not all of its appointments have appeared in La Gaceta.

Late last January, Daniel Edmundo Ortega, one of the least known sons of the presidential couple, surprisingly appeared in a public position as Media Coordinator of the Communication and Citizenship Council, an office of the regime controlled by his mother and Vice-President of Nicaragua, whose goal is to define, surveil and assure the editorial line of the outlets under pro-government direction. Daniel Edmundo is married to Mara Stotti, Director of INTUR (Nicaragua’s touristic development office), as the institution’s website discloses. Stotti’s academic background and experience in the tourist sector are unclear.

Camilo Daniel Ortega Herrera, son of Ortega and former guerrilla member Leticia Herrera, moves around backstage. Although he is not a tight member of the clan, nepotism has benefited him too: he is the Director of Informatics in the office of property registration.

Another member of the family, Rafael Ortega, has represented his father’s Government as Minister in Russia, China and other countries in the Middle East, where he has met with potential investors despite lacking an official appointment. Along with his ex-wife, Yadira Leets, he runs the company Inversiones Zanzibar and Distribuidora Nicaragüense de Petroleo (DNP-Petronic), which control the country’s oil imports and distribution.

But the list goes on: Katherine Argeñal, wife of Carlos Ortega Murillo, is the general manager of DNP-Petronic, as this investigation verified in an official version of the financial statements with her signature and stamp.

Even though the presidential family is visibly lodged in State positions, the only Ortega has talked about it he asserted that accusations of nepotism in his government are “fake”, he added that his sons are mere “collaborators”. “My sons don’t have positions in the Government. One of them (Laureano) contributes, but his work is in a foundation (Incanto) which encourages singing for low-income kids,” he stated in an interview dated September 2018 to France 24.

Incanto organizes opera concerts in exclusive venues, attended by the elite surrounding the presidential family; its website claims that “contributions will come from the collaboration of public institutions and private companies, to be implemented in activities”. An investigation by Articulo 66 revealed that the foundation receives money in checks from the Ministry of the Treasury and Public Credit.

Although Daniel Ortega failed to acknowledge it, Laureano is one of his most high-profile sons and his participation in Government matters is significant. In October 2009, he became Advisor in investment promotion for the tourism sector in ProNicaragua. In 2012, he was appointed presidential Advisor for investment and international trade in the rank of Minister, leading the same agency. None of these positions was mentioned in the interview upon questioning by journalist Marc Perelman.

Far from steering away from power, on February 22nd this year, Laureano Ortega was appointed by his father as Member of the advisory board of Empresa Administradora de Aeropuertos Internacionales (as registered by La Gaceta). He got there alongside Jose Mojica Mejia, a trusted lawyer and alleged front man of the family in power, who acts as legal representative of several companies linked with the sons of Ortega-Murillo. He was even sanctioned by the Department of State of the United States in July 2020 based on “corrupt activities of Ortega’s regime in Nicaragua and benefiting from it.”

Laureano is also sanctioned by Washington, he is considered a “key facilitator of corruption in Ortega’s regime” and also for “committing large acts of corruption with the argument that he is the leader of the agenda at investments in ProNicaragua”, per the Department of State.

The son of the presidential couple studied audiovisual production in Universidad Veritas, in Costa Rica, the country’s most exclusive and expensive university; he also took music in Instituto Musical Luigi Boccherini de Lucca, Conservatorio Giussepe Verdi, in Italy; sociology in Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), and political sciences in Universidad Thomas More. He had no prior connection with knowledge in the economic area before his recent appointment.

Laureano’s wife, Karen Santamaria, is employed at ENATREL (Empresa Nacional de Transmision Electrica), the energy distribution company for a large part of the country. As in his case, her academic studies in the subject and her function in this State institution are unknown.

According to Ortega, his other sons “studied sociology, journalism and enjoy communications. Thus the accusation of nepotism is totally fake. Tell me how many of my kids are officials in the government?” He seemed to challenge in the interview.

Even though the President assured back in 2007, when he took office, that his government would be “transparent” and that it would begin “a new road” in public function to guarantee “Nicaraguan families could live in dignity,” he has never revealed the salary of his children in public office.

In the same interview with France 24, Ortega denied that Rosario Murillo is in charge of the country’s Vice-Presidency for being his wife, and attributed it to “her merit”, labeling as “machos” those who question the position of the polemic “joint President”, a title she received after the Sandinista leader took office in January for his fourth consecutive mandate. “I met comrade Rosario as a militant of the Frente and she occupies the position for being a militant and for her capacities,” Ortega said, and he emphatically stated that “it does not mean we are forming a dynasty.”

But in January 2015, three years before that interview in which Ortega denied the accusations of nepotism, his daughters Camila and Luciana traveled with him and Murillo —as acting Foreign Affairs Minister— to San Jose, Costa Rica, to participate in the Summit of the CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). Back then, the two young ladies were accredited as “presidential advisors”, but the position has not been executed in La Gaceta. Likewise, Rafael was accredited as “presidential Advisor” with the rank of Minister.

Camila is the Director of Nicaragua Diseña, an entity that gets funds from the State through the INTUR. She also directs, along with her siblings Maurice and Luciana, the TV channel Canal 13, which is not State-run but is awarded millionaire public contracts for “publicity”. As if she wasn’t busy enough, she is the Coordinator of Comision Nacional de Economia Creativa, which, per its website, “was created by the instruction of the Presidency of the Republic.”

This commission organizes Nicaragua Emprende, an annual event that is funded by the MEFCCA (Ministry of Family, Community, Cooperative and Associative Economics), to which Xiomara Blandino was appointed as General Director. She is the new wife of Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo. Blandino studied architecture but she didn’t graduate: she made it as far as the third year. Studies related to the economic area or entrepreneurship are unknown.

Article 130 of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua reads: “for appointments of main officials, the fourth degree of consanguinity and second of affinity are enforced,” this does not apply to the public positions of the children of the presidential couple. The article is reinforced by the Integrity Law of Public Servants, whose Article 8 sets forth the same restrictions to the relatives. It is not applied either.

Ligia Gomez, former political secretary of the Frente Sandinista and former manager of economic investigations at BCN (Banco Central de Nicaragua), explains that when she was in the position, her e-mail correspondence came directly from Murillo, as was the case for other political secretaries in the State’s institutions. “The first recipients were her children, then the rest of the cabinet,” she states. “That is a direct way of sending the message that they consider themselves to be the owners, as a family, of the government and all of the structures of power,” Gomez indicates. She was affected by recent massive lay offs in public institutions in 2018 for expressing her reaction to the State’s repression.

Gomez claims that nepotism is not only related to favoritism and salaries allocated to family members or friends for their appointments, but that it also fertilizes corruption. “For instance, everything from protection services by the National Police, which Nicaraguan taxpayers pay for, to shopping; everything that has to do with fuel, tires, maintenance, drivers, it is all paid for with the people’s taxes and enjoyed by the family and their closest friends”, she says.

The Other Families of Power

Gustavo Porras Cortes, a doctor, is one of the closest to the presidential family. He holds several public positions. He is the President of the legislative branch, Secretary General of FETSALUD (federation of healthcare workers) since 1984, National Coordinator of FNT (workers’ national front) since 1996 and a member of the National Directorate of Frente Sandinista, as described by the Parliament’s website.

He yields enormous power which he has used to place his family in important positions. His daughter, Sonia Guillermina Porras Green, was selected (per La Gaceta) as Joint Secretary of Economia Creativa y Naranja, directed by Camila Ortega. And Gusmara Porras, another of his daughters, is the Chief of the gynecology service at the Fernando Velez Paiz public hospital. “Each perinatal clinic treats pregnant patients from their first trimester, who suffer from associated diseases such as hypertension, preeclampsia and gestational diabetes to avoid them getting any complications,” she declared in her official position last year to official outlets in Nicaragua.

On his part, the brother of the representative, Guillermo Porras Cortes, is an Advisor and Coordinator for the COVID-19 Attention Protocol in the same hospital where his niece Gusmara works. “I want to say it from my heart, the pride I feel for Guillermo, my brother is real pride…” Porras gave him accolades when he acknowledged the arduous task of healthcare workers in the pandemic.

In the meantime, eleven family members of representative Alba Luz Ramos Vanegas were identified in the judicial branch; she is the current President of an institution that has been crucial to activate a firm hand against opponents of Ortega’s regime. Her daughter, Maria Alejandra Ramos is her Assistant, despite having confessed that she dislikes law and that she is passionate about modeling. “I don’t know what I’m going to study yet, but I like architecture, I have a good hand for drawing, I like business administration. I dislike law,” she said in an interview to the defunct El Nuevo Diario. 

“In places I used to work, there were complete families that arrived in the mornings. Father, mother and daughter getting off of the same vehicle,” affirmed former judicial official Yader Morazan: “It is a system of castes and privileges in which only some advantaged groups can prosper, those with certain contacts.”

It is the case of Adan Ramos Vanegas, forensic doctor of the IML (Forensic Medicine Institute) and brother of the representative, one of the most powerful women in the tight circle of the Ortega-Murillo family. Likewise, other family members of Alba Luz Ramos occupy positions as judges, magistrates or others in the judicial branch. 

Four nephews hold key positions: Abelardo Alvir Ramos is Judge seventh of the Criminal District of the Audience of Managua, as verified in the website of the judicial branch; and  Adda Venegas Ramos was sworn in by her aunt in 2017 as President Magistrate of the Specialized Criminal Chamber of Violence in TAM (the Appeals Court of Managua), as reported in a press clip. Also, Egberto Ramos Solis is the Judge seventh of the Execution and Foreclosure of the judicial branch; and Alma Larios Ramos is the Director of the Office of Execution and Surveillance of Criminal Sanctions to Teenagers. 

There is another niece that joins them, Lorgia Larios Ramos, who has been placed in another area of the State with nepotism cases: Health. In her LinkedIn profile she indicates that she teaches in the Department of Medicine at UNAN (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Nicaragua), but she has also been appointed as Chief of the pneumology service at Doctor Oscar Danilo Rosales academic hospital, located in the department of Leon, where the family comes from.

Morazan comments that not everyone can be part of the judicial branch: “To get in, you have to have someone with enough power because it offers working stability and the salaries are higher than in any other institution of the State.” 

Another family of power is that led by Francisco Campbell Hooker, for them, nepotism is vox populi. He has a long track record as Ortega’s diplomat to the United States, and he has created a large network of relatives with deep social and political connections, extending from the Caribbean Coast to Managua. Campbell Hooker has been the Nicaraguan Ambassador in Washington, while his brother, Lumberto Campbell is a Magistrate in the Electoral Court, also co-opted by the Sandinista regime. 

Back to the diplomat, it is known that he studied tourism and hospitality in the UNAN, but his experience in foreign affairs is unknown, it is unclear if he has studied anything related to political sciences. But his foreign service career has allowed him to appoint almost all of his family members in diplomatic positions. 

For instance, his wife Miriam Hooker Coe is the consul general of Nicaragua in the United States Embassy. They are parents of two: Mabel Campbell Hooker and Michael Campbell Hooker. Mabel is the press and culture Attaché in the same Embassy in Washington. While her brother has three diplomatic positions and has defended Ortega’s regime in international forums. He is the permanent alternate Representative of Nicaragua, with the rank of extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador in the OAS; Ambassador to the Government of India, based in New Delhi; and advisor Minister of Ortega for international relations with the Great Caribbean. That is what allows the Campbell Hookers to live in the United States as a family. 

In December 2021, Michael Campbell read an infuriated speech in the OAS calling it “that ugly thing”. Asserting that the session was a kind of trial against the organization due to “its atrocities, as the United States and their bosses stand judged for crimes against humanity in all the courts of the people”. He objected: “This is a moment that highlights the negligible condition as lackeys on their knees to this organization, which has lost its legitimacy or credibility, and which lacks respect of the people.”

The family’s nepotism network does not end here. The Ambassador’s brother, Maylon Gregory Campbell, has been appointed as regional Delegate of the MEFCCA; and his nephew, Joel Narvaez Campbell, is a Judge of the family district of Bluefields, although he is one of the less notorious cases.  

Carlos Guadamuz, activist of the human rights collective Nicaragua Nunca +, indicates that it is necessary to consider nepotism in all of its dimensions to understand its massive impact. “Nepotism does not only have to do with appointing people, nepotism has to do with favoritism, with concessions, with the perks that come along with it,” he said.

Guadamuz agrees that the consequences of this practice include inefficient use of public resources, supernumeraries, inflation of payrolls, bonuses and lack of audit. He adds that these cases are considered “serious offenses in the Civil Service and Administrative Career Law”. He asserts that they harm the citizens because the money being squandered could be allocated to social investment: health and education.

He remarks that an opportunity is being denied to people with better professional training and experience to compete for these positions under conditions of fairness and transparency. “This sets off a wave of negative effects for the country, such as economic and material damages to the State,” he said.

The list of families that are close to Ortega in the State continues. Francisco Diaz Madriz, General Director of the National Police and father-in-law of Ortega’s son, has a daughter, Blanca Diaz Flores, who is married to Maurice Ortega Murillo, she is an Advisor of the MIFIC (Ministry of Promotion, Industry and Trade). Two more of Diaz Madriz’ daughters occupy significant public positions: Tania Diaz Flores is the Vice-Minister of Transport and Infrastructure since 2017; and Nahima Janett Diaz Flores was an Advisor of the General Directorate of Telcor for five years, but after the death of the institution’s former director, Orlando Castillo, she was promoted to the main position in June 2020. 

Also, Haydee Diaz Madriz, Francisco’s sister, is the Vice-Minister in Nicaragua’s Ministry of Education since 2015. That year, Murillo appointed her to the position and then it became official in La Gaceta. She seldom appears in the media, despite the prominence of her role.

In the Military Hospital, run by the State under the incumbency of the Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant Colonel and ob-gyn doctor Alma Aviles Castillo has been the Chief of the mother and child department for several years. She is the sister of Julio Cesar Aviles Castillo, Commander in Chief of the Army of Nicaragua. 

Likewise, his son, Julio Aviles Sanchez, works at Telcor as a Planning Specialist for the broadband program, according to his LinkedIn profile. Yet, investigations by the digital outlet Divergentes revealed that he influenced the public opinion to impose the Sandinista regimen’s rhetoric through a troll farm that was eliminated by Meta.

One more family with rampant nepotism is Nestor Moncada Lau’s, the fearsome and mighty Security Advisor of the Ortega-Murillos. His son, Ernesto David Moncada Solis, is the Inspector General of the general directorate of Migration and Immigration of Nicaragua, a position that allows him to control who exits and enters the country. Claudia Moncada Solis, Moncada Lau’s daughter, is an official at Telcor —as this investigation confirmed—, although her exact position is unknown. 

In the meantime, the brother of the presidential advisor, Oscar David Moncada Lau, acts as Director of DGA (the general directorate of Custom Services), as confirmed in a payroll of the entity in possession of Nicaragua Investiga and CONNECTAS. Since the family moves in the shadows, getting information pertaining to them is almost impossible, nevertheless the Department of the Treasury of the United States sanctioned them for “corruption” and “control” of tax and customs authorities of Nicaragua and for making several members of the Ortega-Murillo regime rich. The sanctions were imposed on his wife Lydia Vargas de Moncada and on his five children. Moncada Lau had been sanctioned before.

From Nepotism to Cronyism

Martha Patricia Molina, a lawyer at Observatorio Pro Transparencia y Anticorrupcion,  suggests that nepotism has become “natural” with Ortega in power, and adds that this practice brings inefficiency to the public function because a different level rigorousness is applied to family members or friends in the performance of their tasks, she continues saying that the important issue is that “this family member has come to cover up all the corruption you are exercising.”

An expert in public management, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of political retaliation, states that when a relative is hired (regardless if he/she is experienced enough for the position) it is very likely a “situation in which influence peddling and conflict of interest will affect whether the merit is real or not.” And questions why the CGR (General Comptroller of the Republic) fails to do its job to supervise the prevention of these types of practices in the State. “Income statements show the person’s equity and the extent and the interrelations that he/she might have with other people. If they get a CV for a specific position, it should go through a contest in which the best CV gets selected based on merit. But that is not how it goes.”

Reports by two former employees of the Nicaraguan State reveal a common method to recruit for positions with lesser hierarchy, which became ever more radical after 2018 in order to “pay political favors” and guarantee that people allocated to those positions “respond to the interest of Sandinismo”. There are around 150,000 public servants on duty, according to official data quoted by Rosario Murillo in 2020.

Ana Hernandez, a nurse who worked for over two decades in the Oscar Danilo Rosales public hospital, located in the department of Leon, was fired in 2018 for having rejected the command of the Ministry of Health not to service injured opposition members in that year’s protests, she adds that you need mostly one thing to get to a state position: a political sponsor in the Frente Sandinista and being recommended by someone who is trustworthy. 

The sponsoring document is given by territorial structures of the party, such as the CPC (Consejo del Poder Ciudadano), along with the Department Committee or the department houses of the Sandinista Youth. The sponsoring documents certify that the recommended person is “an outstanding militant” or even the “descendant of a family of collaborators”, as verified in documents in possession of Nicaragua Investiga and CONNECTAS. “If I had the position as Coordinator of a certain area, I could employ my sister, nephew, friend,” Hernandez explained.

Documenting the almost 90 cases of nepotism uncovered by this investigation implied confronting fierce hermetism from the State and fear of former public servants for whom telling the truth threatens their and their families’ safety. What this journalistic work has revealed seems to be the tip of a huge iceberg, and, without a doubt, it is an example of how nepotism as a governmental model guarantees absolute control by the regime of Daniel Ortega, who rewards loyalties at a very high price for the country.