How the Military and Police Forces Have Changed over Time

This page examines how turnover and purges have manifested in Nicaragua’s security services.

By Gil Guerra · Updated September 2026 · Methodology · A primary document read directly. B reputable secondary reporting. C a single report, older unverified reporting, or a regime claim. D inference or calculation. Attributions of motive, especially to Murillo, rest mostly on anonymous sources quoted by exile media and are presented as such.

Who holds the key posts in Nicaragua’s security services?

Who has been removed, and who replaced them?

Who gets purged, and when do they get purged?

This section codes every reported removal, detention or confinement of a security or ruling-party insider from November 2022 to September 2026. Reported cases are not a census, and absence of reporting is not proof that nothing happened.

Who is sanctioned?

What are Nicaragua’s police and military budgets?

How is loyalty secured?

The public record points to four overlapping locks on the army and police command. Open “Learn more” for the evidence.

1 · Kinship

2 in-laws

Police co-chief Francisco Díaz and the army’s medical chief, Brig. Gen. Marco Antonio Salas Cruz, are consuegros of Ortega and Murillo.

Díaz’s daughter is married to the couple’s son Maurice Ortega Murillo, whom OFAC designated on April 16, 2026. Another Díaz daughter, Nahima Díaz Flores, has headed the telecom regulator TELCOR since June 2020; UN experts place TELCOR in the surveillance chain that sends intercepts to army intelligence. Salas Cruz’s son married Camila Ortega Murillo in February 2020; Salas Cruz was promoted to brigadier general in September 2024 and is on no US, EU, UK or Canadian sanctions list. Kinship: tier B. B

2 · Money

~$16 million

in state contracts won by eleven companies of the army’s pension fund (IPSM), 2012–2024.

A 2019 investigation found IPSM held stakes in construction, real estate, banking, insurance and retail, plus about $30 million in US securities, and had never been audited directly by the Comptroller General. Military pensions reach 90% of salary after 40 years of service. IPSM itself is not sanctioned, though its board includes the army commander and at least three other OFAC-designated officials. B

3 · Law and fear

2–3 years

in prison for police desertion under Ley 1158 (2023), which also removed the police’s “apolitical, nonpartisan” character.

Disobedience now carries 6 months to 2 years. Under the 2025 Military Code, recruits swear loyalty before the ruling party’s red-and-black flag as well as the national flag. The US Treasury describes the army’s intelligence directorate (DICIM) as monitoring retired officers deemed disloyal. The army’s founder was confined in 2024; a retired general was sentenced to 20 years for “treason” 26 days after his 2025 arrest. A

4 · Tenure and rank

7-year terms

for the army commander and both police chiefs under the pending reform, counted from their latest appointment.

The army commander’s one-term limit ended in 2014. A new rank of coronel general was created in 2025. Officers were kept after US designation: Díaz (designated 2018, re-sworn 2025), Avilés (2020, reappointed 2024), Chief of Staff Rodríguez Ruiz (2022, promoted 2025). The reform is not law until a second vote, announced for January 18, 2027. A