Since October 2018 three key officials in the mayor´s office in Wiwilí, Jinotega have been murdered – Legal Advisor, Director of Municipal Services, and Director of Acquisitions. In spite of these unresolved crimes, the mayor, a woman – one of the few Liberal mayors left in the country – has strongly denounced these crimes as an attack against her administration. This article updates her situation and provides another example of the manipulation of the justice system for political purposes. In violation of municipal law, the Treasury did not transfer her assignment of funds from the Central Government, forcing her to lay off municipal workers, most of whom were Sandinistas. They then sued her government for an impossible amount of compensation. In spite of the fact that she worked out a payment arrangement, the local judge called her to a contempt of court hearing for not paying the total amount. When her lawyer showed up for the hearing, he was told the hearing was cancelled, and then the judge ordered her arrest.
Ortega judge orders the suspension of the Mayor of Wiwilí from her post
By Martha Vásquez Larios in La Prensa, June 13, 2020
The request for contempt of court charges and an arrest warrant was made by the Prosecutor Marlon Rolando Leiva Flores, the same person who requested the suspension from the office of mayor without any legal argument.
The Ortega judge Diana Isabel Jarquín Valle, from the Local Penal Court of Jinotega, this Friday ordered that Reyna Hernández Mairena be suspended from performing her post as mayor of the municipality of Wiwilí, as an interim measure, which is why she is left inhibited from exercising her functions as such. This is a sign of how the Orteguista regime through legal pretexts attempts to snatch away another municipal government that it lost in popular elections.
This arbitrary blow to the law and penal process the judge did after the fact that this past Wednesday June 10, she declared the mayor in contempt because she did not appear for a hearing where they illegally accused her of alleged disobedience or disregard for authority and detrimental to the administration of justice.
The request for contempt of court charges and arrest warrant was made by the prosecutor Marlon Rolando Leiva Flores, the same judge who requested the suspension of the mayor from her post without any legal argument. That request was presented by the Public Ministry at 1:20pm on Friday June 12, and the judge issued her ruling the same day at 2:15pm, in other words within 55 minutes.
Nevertheless, the defense attorney presented a motion for dismissal on June 9, 2020 at 3:02pm, and the judge still has not ruled on that motion.
The operator is from the Sandinista Front
“The speed and way in which the judge has acted in the case show that she is an operator of the Sandinista Front to obtain the mayorship of Wiwilí-Jinotega in an illegal way,” said the defense lawyer of the mayor, Maynor Curtis.
The mayor Hernández Mairena was known for her steadfastness and courage in denouncing incidents of extrajudicial executions in the zone against opponents of the dictatorship, which are ignored and not investigated by the Orteguista Police
Repressive and non-interim measures
The judge clothed the stripping of the mayor from her post with ostensible legality, arguing the application of interim measures, when she already ordered her arrest, which is contradictory. “In effect, with the purpose of the interim measures being to ensure the effectiveness of the process, ensuring the presence of the accused and regulating the acquisition of the sources of evidence as articles 166 and 167, number 1, subsection j, 169 of the Penal Processing Code, and based on the principles of proportionality, appropriateness, and need, in addition the interim suspension of the accused is ruled in the performance of the post as Mayor of the municipality of Wiwilí, jurisdiction of the province of Jinotega: Reyna Esmeralda Hernández Mairena, likewise the accused is left inhibited from exercising functions, attributions and competencies unique to the post, conferred by Law 40 of the Municipal Law—” reads the official notification.
“Article 166 of the Penal Processing Code concerning the purpose of interim measures says that the purpose of the measures is to ensure the effectiveness of the process, ensuring the presence of the accused and the normal acquisition of the sources of evidence. While determining the interim measures the judge will take into account the appropriateness of each one of them in relation to the punishment that could end up being imposed, the nature of the crime, and magnitude of the damage caused, and the danger of evasion or obstruction of justice. In no case can the interim measures be used as a means to obtain the confession of the accused or as a plea bargain, and this is what the judge is doing,” explained Curtis.
Political persecution
For the mayor, Reyna Esmeralda Hernández Mairena, this has always been a matter of political persecution, because since she was inaugurated they have killed three of her officials, reduced the budget assigned to the municipal government transferred from the Ministry of the Treasury and Public Credit to just 800,000 córdobas, which is why they are practically operating with their own funds.
Then 43 Sandinista former municipal workers sued for compensation of millions of córdobas with unpayable and unbelievable salaries for such a small municipal government, but the Ministry of Labor and Orteguista judges have ruled in their favor, establishing a payment of nearly 16 million córdobas.
“That amount is unpayable for the municipal government with the paltry budget that they assigned it, nevertheless the Municipal Council ruled in February 2020 to pay 800,000 córdobas annually until it is paid, but the workers directed by the Party accused the mayor through the penal process in May 2020. The only reason I see is that they want to remove her from the mayor´s office through legal artifices. If they find her guilty, put her In jail, a Sandinista from the Council would assume the administration, maintains Curtis.
This trial is the one that would have begun on June 10th, but staff from the judicial complex took on the task of telling the lawyers that there was no hearing in that court, and then the judge ruled illegal absence and contempt of court against mayor Hernández. Before that the judge should have ruled on a motion promoted by Curtis for the rescheduling of the hearing of the trial, which the lawyer argues the judge did not address.