MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nicaraguan Prosecution now after former Ortega's second-in-command

Ramírez will not return to Nicaragua any time soon

The Nicaraguan Prosecutor's Office has obtained an arrest warrant against former Vice President Sergio Ramírez Mercado for “inciting acts of violence,” it was reported.

The 79-year-old Ramírez, who once was second in command to current President Daniel Ortega, is out of the country and has no intention of returning in the foreseeable future.

“The dictatorship of the Ortega family has accused me through its own prosecution, and before its own judges, of the same crimes of incitement to hatred and violence, undermining national integrity,” Ramírez said.

Nicaraguan authorities have already arrested or put up for trial 36 opposition leaders, including seven likely contestants for the November 7 presidential elections when Ortega will be seeking yet another term in office.

The Prosecution's actions, Ramírez explained through a statement, “undermine national integrity.” The 2017 literature Cervantes Prize holder also admitted he had not had the time to read the accusations against him, which include allegations that he had received money from the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, whose directors are accused of laundering goods and assets.

The prosecuting body specified that the actions allegedly committed by the novelist “fall within the criminal category of conspiracy to undermine national integrity, in competition with the crime of laundering money, property and assets” established in the criminal code.

Ramírez Mercado was vice president during the first Sandinista government (1979-1990) but then became critical of Ortega. The writer admitted he had never thought that to oust former dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 the country would need to have a new Somoza (about Ortega).