Nicaragua Regime Separates Police Chief from Control of Pension System

Bill separates police command from the Board of Directors of the Social Security and Human Development Institute, which will be attached to the Presidency

By Juan Carlos Bow (Confidencial)

HAVANA TIMES – The Nicaraguan National Police will lose total control over the Social Security and Human Development Institute (ISSDHU), after the Ortega steamroller in the National Assembly approved on Thursday a bill to “Strengthen the management of ISSDHU.” The legislation orders the police high-command to leave the Board of Directors of ISSDHU, which in turn will now be attached to the Presidency.

The bill was introduced one day before on March 11th by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. The dictatorship has been forced to separate the leadership of the National Police, after it was sanctioned last week by the US Department of Treasury. The United States Government accused the police institution of “being responsible for or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuses in Nicaragua.”

The sanction did not directly include the Social Security and Human Development Institute, since it is an autonomous entity of the State of Nicaragua. However, analysts and security experts had told Confidencial that the Institute would be affected in the short term, because it was attached to the National Police.

The ISSDHU provides benefits and manages the future pensions for the workers of: the National Police; the Penitentiary System; the Immigration and Customs; the Fire Department of Nicaragua; the central organs of the Interior Ministry; and the personnel that make up the autonomous entity and that are not affiliated to the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS).

On their website they indicate that they also provide emergency, personal and school loans. They have 19 local branches across the country.

Under the Presidency

Law 872 in its article 71 indicates that the ISSDHU “is an autonomous entity of the State of Nicaragua, of indefinite duration, with its own assets, legal personality and in full capacity to acquire rights and incur in obligations, attached to the National Police.”

The bill, in its article 4, ratifies the ISSDHU as an “autonomous entity of the State of Nicaragua,” but orders that it will now be “attached to the Presidenacy,” instead of the sanctioned Police. Experts anticipated this change but were more inclined to the possibility that the Institute will pass into the hands of MINGOB or INSS.

The regime has until May 6 as a deadline to make changes in the relations of the Police with other institutions and private companies, including banks. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), of the Treasury Department, established that term so that US businesses and entities could “gradually” cut transactions with the Nicaraguan Police.