Ortega Allies Travel Undercover to Miami with Team Nicaragua
A police chief, a Sandinista mayor and a paramilitary doctor have stepped onto US soil in the guise of a technical assistant, a secretary of the Nicaraguan Baseball Federation, and a medic.
By 100% Noticias / Nicaragua Actual
HAVANA TIMES – Three functionaries of the Ortega-Murillo regime who were involved in that government’s violent repression of the opposition are currently in Miami, where they arrived as members of the Nicaraguan Baseball Federation (Feniba). The three were allowed into the United States despite the Biden administration’s having forbidden Nicaraguan mayors and upper-echelon government workers from entering US soil.
Sanctioned Police Commissioner Julio Sanchez, along with Ebert Lopez, Sandinista mayor of the El Rosario municipality in Carazo, and Edgard Zapata Arevalo, a doctor affiliated with the paramilitary, are the three functionaries that entered the United States on Monday, March 6. All three covered up the fact that they’re also on the dictatorship’s official payroll.
Team Nicaragua also arrived in Miami on March 6, for the World Baseball Classic. The three individuals mentioned were inscribed with the team as directors, technical advisor, and medical personnel.
US had forbid entry to functionaries of the Ortega regime
The United States government has a standing order not to allow entry into the country to any member of the Ortega regime. That announcement was made personally by President Joe Biden in November 2021.
The decision was then formally established in an official White House document, indicating that regime collaborators who occupy posts as mayors, assistant mayors, security personnel and ministers, cannot enter the United States, nor can their spouses and close families.
Commissioner of both the police and baseball
Given that the Nicaraguan police are the principal organ of repression in Nicaragua, all of their members are supposedly barred from entering the United States. Nonetheless, under the guise of technical assistant, Commissioner Julio Sanchez was allowed in with the team. As police commissioner, he was active in repressing the 2018 opposition demonstrations.
In May 2018, journalist Leticia Gaitan, now in exile, asked him about the attacks on students from the now-shuttered Polytechnical Institute and the Nicaraguan National Autonomous University in Managua. He responded: “Ask me about baseball, and I’ll tell you anything,” as if his police uniform were merely decorative.
Mayor from Carazo associated with the paramililtary
Ortega-allied mayor Ebert Lopez from El Rosario municipality in Carazo department traveled under the banner of Feniba secretary.
Lopez is accused of being responsible for the persecution and police sieges against dissidents from this municipality, and of ordering the word “Plomo” (lead) to be painted on certain houses as a form of death threat.
Gerall Chavez, who directs the Nicaragua Actual news site, denounced on social media that the Sandinista functionary has led repressive actions directed against himself and his family. The Rosario mayor is also accused of having provoked the arbitrary detention of Carla Vega in November 2022.
The orthopedist holding an AR-15 rifle
Doctor Edgard Zapata Arevalo is part of the Nicaraguan team’s medical personnel. In order to travel, he hid the fact that he’s also recognized as a member of Ortega’s paramilitary who – weapon in hand -participated in the repression. For many years, Zapata led Nicaragua’s National Student Union, a government-controlled student organization.
The doctor was trained as an orthopedist and served as head of the department of medicine, a position where he enjoyed the fruits of power. In 2018, Zapata posted a photo of himself with an assault weapon in his hands – an AR-15 with a high-power scope. This is the weapon that was used by the snipers who, under government orders, murdered numerous young demonstrators with bullets to the throat and chest.
Time for Ortega to go bye bye.