Conflict among Sandinistas due to FSLN travel restrictions

A request for a travel permit made by Aury Bayardo Rodríguez Gonzáles, who was a political promoter of the Sandinista Front in Zelaya Central Dos, unleashed a strong conflict among members of this political organization in Muelle de Los Bueyes amid accusations of treason and the imposition of travel restrictions on some leaders of the red and black party in the area.

On March 4, 2022, Rodriguez Gonzalez addressed a letter to Pedro Martinez, political secretary of the citizen power of Zelaya Central, requesting “special permission” to travel to Guatemala between March 21 and 23 to visit the Swedish embassy and arrange a work residency permit, a requirement demanded by the company for which he works, as quoted in his letter. 

“The Swedish embassy in Guatemala has requested my presence to carry out the statutory interview on March 22. The day before (March 21) I will be traveling from Nicaragua, and I will be returning on March 23,” wrote Rodríguez Gonzáles. 

Rodriguez’s request was rejected because the Sandinista leadership accused him of actually intending to leave the country for good. Local media that are part of the propaganda apparatus of the regime even started a dirty campaign against him, accusing him of being a traitor and of intending to travel to the United States, “leaving behind his responsibilities with the party”. 

Due to the accusations against him, Rodriguez was forced to resign from his political post and denounce that his trip was denied, as can be seen in a video circulating on social networks.  “Comrades, I am not the municipal political secretary, my position is that of the departmental political promoter, but officially and here in front of all of you, I resign from that position, and for my dignity, I will not accept any other,” he said, as can be seen in the video.

In another video, also circulating on social media, a militant from the area can be seen accusing the Political Secretariat of the zone of allegedly asking the National Police to watch over some leaders of the area and mainly Rodriguez's relatives.

“They called me from the Police, I don't have permission to go there anymore. Do you know why? Because they say that I am the biggest terrorist in Muelle de los Bueyes. Are you going to believe it? A Sandinista was declared a terrorist against his own people. Is that fair, comrades?”, the militant says in what appears to be a party meeting in the area. 

A Facebook portal called Red de Comunicadores Sandinistas Muelle de los Bueyes maintains a campaign of accusations against Rodríguez and his family, accusing them of “harming the FSLN” and discrediting the political secretary Pedro Martínez.

“Let our comrades from Muelle de Los Bueyes see the kind of people the Rodríguez family are, speaking ill of our comrade Pedro Martínez and doing damage to our party in the municipality. See how they are hurting the FSLN of our comandante Daniel and comrade Rosario. They question and accuse our comrade Pedro Martínez of being a scoundrel and a thief”, quotes a post of the portal about a video of the same party meeting in which the red and black leadership is accused of establishing travel restrictions for some militants.

In other reports of this same portal, a call is made to boycott the realization of a caravan of Sandinista militants that was intended to be carried out in support of Aury Bayardo Rodríguez González, his family, and other supporters who have been forbidden to leave Muelle de los Bueyes.

Since November 2021, it is reported that the Sandinista Front imposed a migratory siege not only on opponents, journalists, critics of the regime, relatives of political prisoners, and figures of private enterprise and the Catholic Church.  These same restrictions have also reached members of the red-black party, public servants, and officials of the regime.

CONFIDENCIAL even published a special report on December 6, 2021, on the controls and travel prohibitions of the migratory authorities for any public servant who does not have a permit granted by the Sandinista Front.

This paranoia of the regime has been aggravated in March 2022 due to the impact of the resignations of Arturo McFields as ambassador in the middle of a session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States, and that of international lawyer Paul Reichler, who served as international legal advisor of Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice in The Hague for more than twenty years,  first in the 1980s and after 2007.

This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by our staff