Ortega’s Police Arrest President of Nicaragua’s Largest Bank

Under the orders of Daniel Ortega, the National Police issued a statement on the arrest Tuesday night June 15^th of the executive president of Banpro, Grupo Promerica, Luis Rivas Anduray. Using a script designed to fit all, they affirm that he is being investigated for allegedly violating article 1 of Law No. 1055 “Law in Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination for Peace.”

Rivas is a member of the Board of Directors of Banpro, and is also its regional CEO, since that financial entity has a presence in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Dominican Republic and the Cayman Islands.

• Witch Hunt and Abductions Continue in Nicaragua

During the last two weeks, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has carried out a series of arrests against citizens whom it accuses of “carrying out acts that undermine independence, sovereignty and self-determination, inciting foreign interference in the internal affairs, request military interventions, organize with financing from foreign powers to carry out acts of terrorism and destabilization, propose and manage economic, commercial, and financial operations blockades against the country and its institutions, demand, exalt and applaud the imposition of sanctions against the State of Nicaragua and its citizens, and harm the supreme interests of the nation.”

Based on this single article, they jailed presidential candidates Arturo Cruz, Felix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro. Candidate Cristiana Chamorro is being held incommunicado under house arrest. Also imprisoned are the former president of the Supreme Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), Jose Adan Aguerri; liberal lawyer Jose Pallais; former deputy foreign minister Victor Hugo Tinoco, retired Brigadier General Hugo Torrez, and opponents Violeta Granera, Tamara Davila, Dora Maria Tellez, Suyen Barahona and Ana Margarita Vigil.

• Ortega Demolishes Elections, Nicaraguans Held Hostage

Under a new law, people arrested without charges can now be held for 90 days while under investigation.  It used to be 48 hours.

his article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times