Caribbean & Central America - March 2015 (ISSN 1741-4458)

A bomb that went off in the municipality of Pantasma, Jinotega department, killing three people last month, has again raised questions about the presence of armed anti-government groups in the north of Nicaragua. Top military officials were compelled to provide reassurances that the incident was not part of a military operation. But this has done little to reassure local human rights groups like the NGOs, Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (Cenidh) and Comisión Permanente de Derechos Humanos (CPDH), the political opposition or the Catholic Church.

On 9 February Cenidh released its report into the 20 January incident in which three individuals, identified as Modesto Duarte Altamirano, ‘Nacho’ and ‘Sereno’ were killed after a bomb left in a rucksack went off.

Since 2009 the Church has raised concerns about the presence of armed anti-government groups in the north of the country (where the Contras were active during the first Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional [FSLN] government led by President Daniel Ortega [1979-1990]). It is also worth pointing out that this is not the first time that Pantasma has been the site of deadly violence as a result of confrontations between the military and alleged armed groups. In October 2013 clashes took place during efforts by the military to pursue a former Contra, Gerardo de Jesús ‘El Flaco’ Gutiérrez, a leader of the Coordinadora Guerrillera Nicaragüense (CGN). At the time the local media circulated a press release by the CGN claiming that it had forged an alliance with another armed group, Fuerzas Democráticas Nicaragüenses (FDN 3-80), since February 2012 to fight the “unconstitutional” government of President Ortega. Meanwhile in December 2013, clashes between the police and unknown armed men in the municipality of Bocas de Ayapal, also in Jinotega, left ten dead, including four police officers.

As with previous instances, the Ortega government and the police dismissed the 20 January blast as an incident of intra criminal gang fighting. Yet these explanations have been met with scepticism. In its report, the Cenidh draws similarities between it and attacks that took place in the past against armed groups like the Frente Unido Andrés Castro (FUAC), formed of demobilised members of the Ejercito Popular Sandinista (EPS) disillusioned with the FSLN leadership. A week after the bomb went off, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes said that the incident evoked the violence of the 1980s – a view echoed by the main opposition leader, Eduardo Montealegre, of the Partido Liberal Independiente (PLI). Further expressing such concerns, on 9 February, the Bishop of Jinotega, Carlos Enrique Herrera, told reporters that he was not satisfied with the investigations carried out by the police in the area or the official explanation for the violence. Since then, on 5 March, a human rights commission linked to another human rights organisation, Asociación Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (ANDH), has been set up in Pantasma at the behest of the local community to monitor the human rights situation in the area.

• Avilés continues as military chief

On 21 February President Daniel Ortega swore-in General Julio César Avilés as head of the armed forces for a second consecutive five-year term, making him the first military chief to serve in the post for longer than five years since 1995.

Avilés’s ratification follows the military reform passed in January 2014, which removed the prohibition on the re-appointment of the head of the military (who is appointed by the president) [RC-14-02].

As with the reform, Avilés’s continuance in the post reignites ongoing concerns regarding the military’s lack of independence and Ortega’s perceived efforts to incorporate the military into his political project, a blurring of boundaries that was embodied in Ortega’s choice of a former army chief, (ret.) General Omar Halleslevens, as his running mate in the November 2011 presidential elections.

• New military equipment

On 10 February Nicaragua’s army inspector, General Adolfo Zepeda, announced plans to purchase new combat aircraft so that Nicaragua could better enforce its airspace sovereignty over the expanded maritime territory it was awarded at Colombia’s expense by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2012. The announcement provoked a response from Colombia, with Senator Jimmy Chamorro of the Partido de la U urging President Juan Manuel Santos to call on the senate’s foreign relations committee to analyse whether this intended purchase represents a threat for Colombia.