In the last week there was a striking shakeup within the Supreme Court which rippled through the Judicial Branch, surprising in the sense that it has been known to be completely subjected to the control of the Executive Branch, and more specifically to Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. In addition, the regime removed control over the property and mercantile registries from the Judicial Branch and put them under the Executive Branch. Some observers interpreted the changes as a preparation for a future transition from Daniel to either Rosario or one of their children, facilitating future confiscations and removing any figure not blindly loyal to the regime. This article lays out the breadth of these changes, and the same time shows the degree of nepotism existing in government posts, which mirrors the nepotism practiced by the presidential couple.
The shakeup in the Supreme Court of Nicaragua
By DIVERGENTES, Nov 1, 2023
In the last week the Ortega-Murillo regime has dismantled the Supreme Court, beginning with the removal of the Magistrate, Alba Luz Ramos, the president of that institution. Since then, other actions have been taken which include dismissals, destitutions, evictions, “voluntary resignations” and even the withdrawal of one of the attributions of the Judicial Branch. The team of DIVER-CHECK recounts the events for you.
This past Tuesday [Oct 31, 2023] the National Assembly controlled by the Ortega-Murillo regime, took away from the Supreme Court the attribution of supervising the administrative functioning of the Public Property and Mercantile Registries, naming the Public Registrars, including sanctioning them for disciplinary violations, through a reform of article 165 of the Constitution of Nicaragua.
At the same time, it created the Law for the Assignment of the National Registry System (SINARE) to the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), which established that this body would exercise the leadership, control and supervision of SINARE, in addition to being the legal representative of the State in the business which is carried out in the courts.
The reform repeals section four of article 165, which pointed out that the National Council for Judicial Career and Administration, a body of the CSJ with technical and operational autonomy, had the faculty of “supervising the administrative functioning of the Public Property and Mercantile Registries, as well as the offices of common services.”
This reform also modifies sections five and six which previously attributed to the Council the authority to name Public Property and Mercantile Registrars, as well as examine, hear, and resolve denouncements for minor, serious and very serious disciplinary violations, imposing the sanctions established in the law.
Experts state that in democratic countries, the tendency in registration issues aims toward decentralization and functional autonomy, contrary to what is happening in Nicaragua, where these measures aim at the concentration of absolute power over the public registries from El Carmen [the residence of Ortega].
Public registries have existed in Nicaragua since 1904 and by legal mandate have been a dependency of the Judicial Branch, with the faculties of a supervisory and administrative control body, with responsibility for naming and removing public registrars.
Nevertheless, this is not the first time that the registries were taken from the Judicial Branch and transferred to the Attorney General, given that in 1980, by a decree from the Junta de Gobierno de Reconstrucción Nacional (JGRN), public registries were transferred to the dependency of the Ministry of Justice of the Executive Branch, which later disappeared, and in 1988 the registries were under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance (MIFIN).
In 1990 the public property and mercantile registries recovered their original status of organic and administrative dependencies of the Judicial Branch.
Marvin Aguilar, the new president of the Supreme Court (CSJ)?
This past Tuesday October 31, 2023, a memorandum was also circulated from the CSJ in which the secretary, Rubén Montenegro, informed the workers of the Judicial Branch that Thursday November 2 is a paid holiday and that Friday November 3rd is a day off charged against vacation time.
Nevertheless, the memorandum began in the following way: “With instructions from Dr. Marvin Ramiro Aguilar García, the magistrate acting as president in this Supreme Court.”
This reveals that the Ortega magistrate Marvin Aguilar is functioning as president of the Supreme Court (CSJ), in light of the absence of the president of this branch of the State.
Up to now there has been no official communique which reports the removal or reasons for the absence of the Magistrate who is President, Alba Luz Ramos, as well as the formalization of the position of president of Magistrate Marvin Aguilar.
The forced departure of Alba Luz Ramos
On October 24th, lawyer Yader Morazán revealed the onslaught on Alba Luz Ramos. The removal of Ramos was carried out by a group of police led by retired General Commissioner Horacio Rocha, presidential advisor with the rank of Minister on issues of national security.
According to different sources within the Judicial Branch, at least 72 hours before the order came down for “the kill shot” to the Magistrate president of the CSJ, an operation began, which included the intervention and freezing of the bank accounts and the computer system, as well as the demotion of the administrative secretary Berman Martínez and the director of information technology Martín García. Also fired in this area were Juan Carlos Zeas and Haziel Canda.
Among the more than hundred people fired, according to Confidencial, were: Edgar Solórzano, Director of Public Relations; Esperanza Fonseca, Director of the Judicial Inspectorate; Marlin Jarquín, General Director of Registration and Control of Lawyers and Notaries; and Ángela Rosa Acevedo, technical secretary of Gender.
On the other hand, Pablo Corea, who for a few days was in the post that Berman Martínez had, after being designated as interim administrative general secretary of the Supreme Court, also was fired.
Morazán states that for a long time the Ortega-Murillo regime has been shutting down the circle of power of Alba Luz Ramos, as a consequence of the arrest and later banishment of the Press Director of the Judicial Branch, Roberto Larios and his advisors María José Camacho Chévez, Han Camacho Chévez and Moisés Astorga.
What is considered so far is that the fall of the most important figures of the Judicial Branch could be related to the information leaks about acts of corruption committed by the administrative-financial office that Berman Martínez directed.
The dismissed judges
Two days after the removal of magistrate Alba Luz Ramos, the magistrate Yadira Centeno González from the Civil Chamber of the CSJ also was removed and sent home. Her daughter, Carla Lucía Flores Centeno experienced the same fate.
On October 29 the magistrate of the Specialized Penal Chamber on Adolescent Violence and Justice of Managua, Adda Benicia Vanegas Ramos, the niece of Alba Luz Ramos, was dismissed. Likewise, her daughter, who worked as her assistant, was fired. In addition, two more nephews of Magistrate Ramos Vanegas were dismissed: Abelardo Alvir Ramos, Penal District Trial Judge of Managua, and Egberto Ramos, Family District Judge of Managua.
Then, on the night of October 31, it was revealed that the de facto third magistrate of the court, Virgilio Gurdián, was also removed, who in addition was one of the four members of the National Council for Judicial Career and Administration, a collegiate body which was the highest administrative authority of that Branch of the State, and of which are only left Marvin Aguilar and Juana Méndez.
Gurdián came to the CSJ in 2014, betraying his old party, the extinct Liberal Independent Party (PLI) of Eduardo Montealegre. He remained in the post after his term expired in 2019.
Among the “absences” and “voluntary resignations” are magistrates Martha Quezada Saldaña and Martha Leiva Ayón. Quezada was the judge who rejected the de-adoption process which Zoilamérica requested against Daniel Ortega.
Quezada functioned as president of the Second Penal Chamber of the Managua Appeals Court (TAM), and Leiva as president of the Appeals Court of Managua.