Ortega Boots His Longtime Finance Minister Ivan Acosta
Police raid his office and home, but fail to capture him; They are investigating him for alleged corruption. Acosta was Minister of Finance since 2012
HAVANA TIMES – Ivan Acosta was dismissed as Minister of Finance and Public Credit by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua, three sources linked to the now ex-official told Confidencial. He had held the position since early February 2012. Alongside the President of the Central Bank, Ovidio Reyes, he was the main economic operator of the regime.
On Tuesday, June 18, agents of the National Police raided Acosta’s office and later his home, located in a residential area in Veracruz, where only his family was present.
The now ex-minister was absent from the weekly virtual meeting attended by political secretaries, mayors, and ministers of the dictatorship. According to the news outlet 100% Noticias, employees of the Ministry of Finance were notified by phone that Acosta was no longer the head of the department.
The dismissal of Ivan Acosta and the raid on his office and home are reportedly linked to an investigation into alleged acts of corruption, involving other officials and former officials of the Ministry of Finance.
Employees of the department fear a new witch hunt and purge by the dictatorship against the staff, as has happened after the departure of heads of other public entities, such as the Supreme Court, which was intervened in October 2023, by orders of Vice President Rosario Murillo, leaving more than a thousand state workers dismissed.
Ivan Acosta Joined the Treasury in 2007
As Minister of Finance, Iván Acosta was in charge of the public finances of the dictatorship and a full member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Nicaragua. The former official, an economist and lawyer, joined the Government in 2007, following Daniel Ortega’s return to power. In the Treasury, he served as Secretary-General and Deputy Minister of the department, and took over as Minister in February 2012, after the departure of his predecessor, Alberto Guevara.
Within the dictatorship, Acosta also served as Nicaragua’s governor to international cooperation organizations: the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and alternate governor to the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).
Sanctioned by the United States
In May 2020, Iván Acosta was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, along with the head of the Army, Julio Cesar Aviles, “for supporting the corrupt regime” of Daniel Ortega.
The United States argued that after the regime’s massacre against the 2018 citizen protests, Ivan Acosta “continued to organize significant financial support for the Ortega regime.”
US authorities also claimed that “Acosta personally threatened banks not to participate in a strike organized by opposition leaders in March 2019, aimed at pushing for the release of political prisoners.”
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in the property of these individuals that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC,” the official communication from the US Government stated.
Days later, the dictatorship announced that Ivan Acosta would remain as head of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, although his signature ceased to have value due to the sanctions, appointing a deputy minister as a “signature lender,” according to a Presidential Agreement published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta.
The regime also removed Ivan Acosta from his position as the representative of the capital shares of the semi-state electric distribution company, Disnorte-Dissur.
Not good news for the Nicaragua business sector.