Humberto Ortega Saavedra, brother of Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega, passes away

General Humberto Ortega Saavedra

The former Defense Minister and brother and critic of Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega died this Monday in a military hospital in Managua. cardiorespiratory arrestThe Nicaraguan military reported.

“The patient, Humberto Ortega Saavedra, 77 years old, suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest, and despite treating him with cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers, he did not come out of that condition,” the army said in a statement, declaring him dead at 02:30 Went.”

On Sunday, the army had said that General Ortega’s health had deteriorated. “sudden deterioration” In the last few hours.

On May 21, Nicaraguan police set up a medical unit in the retired general’s home, a measure interpreted as house arrest By the opposition media in exile.

The police detention began after he said in an interview that his brother Daniel, 78, He lacked heirs and his power could not withstand his death.

On May 28, Ortega said at a public event that his brother (though without mentioning his name) had committed an act of “treason” by sentencing a United States military officer in 1992.

In a press release published by the official media El19DigitalHumberto Ortega’s children and grandchildren expressed their views “Deep sorrow over death” and asked for “respect for the privacy and grief” of the family.

The Ortega brothers were part of the Sandinista guerrillas who fought the dictatorship of the Somoza family, which ruled the Central American country with an iron fist for more than four decades (1936–1979).

After the victory of the revolution in 1979, Humberto Ortega became military general Until 1995, while his brother took over the reins of government, first as a board member and then personally.

In 1990, Daniel Ortega was defeated in an election, although he regained power in 2007 and has since been continuously re-elected in elections questioned by the United States and the European Union.

The two had a brother, 27-year-old Camilo Ortega, died in February 1978 during the Sandinista armed struggle against the Somoza dictatorship.

The Nicaraguan regime highlighted the “strategic contributions” of the former army chief. “We remember General Ortega’s strategic contributions as a Sandinista militant since his adolescence, his bravery in revolutionary military actions such as the rescue of Commander Carlos Fonseca Amador in Costa Rica, where he was shot, and his physical mobility of the upper Was lost. of his body,” the Nicaraguan executive said in a press release.

,We recognize his writings, platforms, insurrectionary and historical theories, which brilliantly compiled and highlighted the epics of the heroic Nicaraguan people and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).he adds.

The Nicaraguan regime indicated that the retired general, “born in a family of Sandinista identity and strength, with exemplary parents such as Don Daniel Ortega Cerda and Doña Lidia Saavedra de Ortega, along with his brothers, Daniel, Germania, Camilo, leave us Are.” a legacy of Science And guerilla practice,

Furthermore, “the ability to recognize incomparable merits and courageous and humble personalities in the revolutionary and anti-imperialist history of the Nicaraguan people, valuable foundations and evidence of courage and determination, who stood out for their courage, bravery and consequence,” He insisted.

(With information from AFP and EFE)