The Nicaraguan government has placed historic Sandinista commander Bayardo Arce, economic adviser to President Daniel Ortega, under house arrest, according to exiled opposition members and Nicaraguan media in exile on Tuesday.
Arce, a 76-year-old former guerrilla, had served as a presidential adviser since 2007. However, in recent years, he had been sidelined from his duties and, according to local media, could be linked to acts of corruption.
The Sandinista commander has been caught up in an internal purge within the government ahead of a succession process for the 79-year-old Ortega, who suffers from chronic illnesses, experts and exiled opponents said Tuesday.
“Rosario Murillo is cleaning house,” former guerrilla commander Dora María Téllez told AFP from her exile in Spain, attributing Arce’s house arrest to Ortega’s co-president and wife.
Arce is the third former member of the old guard of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN, the ruling leftist party) to be placed under house arrest: Henry Ruiz has been in the same situation since last March, and Humberto Ortega, the former army chief and the president’s brother, was under house arrest when he died in September 2024.
“His house arrest confirms that the regime’s self-destruction process is well underway. This is not a sign of strength but of great weakness,” wrote Arturo McFields, a former Nicaraguan diplomat exiled in the United States.
Nicaraguan media outlets such as La Prensa, Confidencial, 100% Noticias, Artículo 66, and Nicaragua Investiga — which operate from Costa Rica and the United States — reported that Arce was stripped of his security detail, and his home and office have been under police surveillance since last weekend.
“This implosion process will trigger an unexpected event that could lead to checkmate for the dictatorship,” said Nicaraguan sociologist Óscar René Vargas in an interview with 100% Noticias.
Over the past two years, hundreds of employees and senior officials from the judiciary and various state institutions have been removed as part of a deep restructuring that analysts say is being led by Murillo with Ortega’s approval.
The Ortega-Murillo government has not commented on the reports regarding Arce. Ortega has remained in power since 2007 following a series of re-elections widely questioned by the international community.
In recent months, Ortega has appeared at public events looking pale and walking with difficulty, a result of kidney failure and lupus, according to exiled Nicaraguan physician Richard Sáenz Coen, who once treated the presidential family.
