By Roberto Orozco B. | 2025-02-17

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- The use of a Russia-supplied surveillance system has led to a crack down on dissent in Nicaragua -- including on officials within President Daniel Ortega's government.

Almost 50 officials, including top military and police chiefs, have been dismissed, with some even arrested.

Originally developed by Russian scientists in the 1950s, SORM (System for Operational Research Activities) is a surveillance tool that has been in use in Nicaragua since 2018. Its latest version, SORM-3, is now being used by the Ortega regime to monitor and control communications.

According to expert Douglas Farah, quoted by Confidencial in August, the Russian surveillance system was supplied by the company Protei and has since intensified political persecution in Nicaragua.

In April 2018, the Nicaraguan government faced its biggest sociopolitical crisis. Mass protests -- known as the "April Rebellion" -- erupted, demanding the resignation of Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.

The regime responded with brutal force, deploying heavily armed police and paramilitaries. The crackdown left at least 350 dead, 760 imprisoned for political reasons and forced 65,000 into exile.

Loyalists purged

Since then, the SORM-3 system has been used to track digital communications, identify dissenters and silence critics through arrests or forced expulsions.

Initially aimed at crushing opposition, the spy network is now turning inward, targeting even those within the regime.

The result: 46 high-ranking loyalists purged, including four Supreme Court justices, a government minister, three top National Police officers, three former Nicaraguan Army generals and longtime Sandinista insiders.

The purge has reached even the most emblematic figures of the Sandinista movement.

Among them is Carlos Fonseca Teran, son of Carlos Fonseca Amador, the revered "father" of the Sandinista Popular Revolution (RPS), which toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 and brought the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to power.

"He was once considered untouchable, just like many others who played key roles in sustaining Ortega's regime, such as magistrates Marvin Aguilar and Alba Luz Ramos. Now, no one is safe," Nicaraguan political analyst Hector Mairena told Entorno.

In August 2024, Fonseca Teran was officially accused of corruption and arrested alongside 25 officials from the Managua City Hall.

However, independent media reported that their real crime was expressing dissent in a WhatsApp group called La Comuna.

A deepening rift

For analysts, the ongoing purge within Ortega's regime stems from a shift in power to his wife, who was appointed "co-president" in November following a recent constitutional reform.

"This has only worsened the rift that has existed between Ortega's closest allies since 2007," said Mairena.

Historian and political analyst Dora Maria Tellez shares this view. In a November interview with Confidencial, Tellez argued that the essence of the constitutional reform is about consolidating power for Murillo, who fears Ortega's eventual departure.

"The reforms give her a heavy-handed tool to crush anyone who challenges her," she explained.

It's also possible that the Russians are backing her.

"The Russians don't want regime change in Nicaragua; they view the country as a key platform for espionage and potential military leverage in the future," Anibal Espinoza, a former Military Intelligence officer from Nicaragua now seeking asylum in the United States, told Entorno.

"SORM-3 has proven more effective in monitoring allies than dissidents," who are part of the diaspora expelled from Nicaragua by the regime's repression, he added.

According to another military expert interviewed by Entorno, who requested anonymity for the safety of his family in Nicaragua, the SORM-3 system enables analysts to monitor phone calls, email traffic and internet activity across the country.

While the system is operated by Russians in Nicaragua, the equipment has been installed at various units within the Nicaraguan Army, the source revealed.

The primary base of operations for this surveillance system is Unit 502, located on Cerro Mokoron, south of Managua.

This unit oversees several antennas situated on key elevations across the country, including Cosigüina and Casitas volcanoes, El Naranjo near the Costa Rican border, Las Manos, Cerro Mogoton, the Amerrisque mountain range, Bilwi, and Peñas Blancas.

Unit 502 is a division of the Directorate of Military Intelligence and Counterintelligence (DICIM), which is commanded by Brig. Gen. Leonel Gutierrez.

Cleaning house

The most recent purge within the National Police occurred at the end of January, when Commissioner General Horacio Rocha was dismissed by Murillo and placed under house arrest.

He faces accusations of conducting unauthorized investigations into high-ranking officials, according to independent media reports.

Rocha, who had served as Daniel Ortega's security adviser and coordinated the National Police, is not the only high-ranking official to have been removed.

General Commissioner Adolfo Marenco, head of Police Intelligence and involved in the 2018 repression of protesters, was dismissed in 2023 and briefly imprisoned at El Chipote.

The Supreme Court of Justice has seen the most dismissals, with about 12 officials removed since 2023. The most recent was Judge Marvin Aguilar, vice president of the Judiciary and acting president of the court after the removal of Judge Alba Luz Ramos.

Together, they were key judicial figures for Ortega.

The military has been targeted, notably with the arrest of retired Gen. Francisco Orlando Talavera Siles in June 2024 on corruption charges linked to former General Treasurer Juan José Montoya.

Analysts, including Tellez, argue that these purges are part of Murillo's power consolidation, gradually sidelining Ortega's loyalists and building an inner circle loyal only to her.

"Daniel Ortega clearly has less power every day, as can be seen. The power is resting mainly on Rosario Murillo," Tellez stated.