Director of regional financial group arrested in Nicaragua

Nicaragua rejects OAS resolution on arrests 3:06

(CNN Spanish) -

The Nicaraguan National Police reported, through a statement - without specifying the place or circumstances - that it detained Luis Alberto Rivas Anduray, director of Banpro Grupo Promerica, a regional group of financial companies, who according to the police is investigated in accordance with article 1 of Law 1055, the "Law for the defense of the rights of the people to independence, sovereignty and self-determination for peace."

According to the police statement, Rivas Anduray is being investigated for carrying out alleged “acts that undermine independence, sovereignty and self-determination, incite foreign interference in internal affairs, request military interventions, organize with financing from foreign powers to carry out acts of terrorism and destabilization, propose and manage economic, commercial and financial blockades against the country and its institutions, demand, exalt and applaud sanctions against the state of Nicaragua and its citizens and harm the supreme interests of the nation.

The police statement does not establish whether he is being investigated in a personal capacity or for being a director of the banking group, nor does it establish whether the group's operations continue.

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This Wednesday Banpro Grupo Promerica issued a statement before the police action in which they indicated that "we are sure of the moral quality of Dr. Rivas and we trust that his situation will be clarified."

Grupo Promerica «is a group of financial companies that originated in 1991 with the founding of Banpro Grupo Promerica in Panama City and later expanded its operations through the creation of the Banco de la Producción in Nicaragua, from St. Georges Bank in Panama and the Cayman Islands and Banco Promerica in El Salvador, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, all controlled by the holding company Promerica Financial Corporation (PFC) ”, as reported on its website.

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Rivas Anduray becomes the first businessman arrested by the Nicaraguan government and the number 13 arrested this month under investigation in accordance with Law 1055, approved in December 2020 by the Nicaraguan National Assembly with an official majority.

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The other 12 detained for investigation of alleged acts against sovereignty are the presidential candidates Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro, the opposition leaders José Pallais, José Adan Aguerri and Violeta Granera, who were joined this weekend by the ex-guerrillas Sandinistas Dora María Téllez Argüello, Hugo Torres Jiménez and Víctor Hugo Tinoco and activists Tamara Dávila, Ana Margarita Vigil Gurdián and Suyen Barahona, the last six of the political movement Unión Democrática Renovadora.

In videos recorded prior to their capture, several of the detainees do not accept the accusations of treason and insist on the demand for free and transparent elections.

The detainees' lawyers say they have not been allowed to see them.

The judiciary extended the term of up to 90 days in prison to 10 of those detained under Law 1055, to extend the investigative acts that follow. Through communiqués, their lawyers have denounced that they rejected personal exhibition appeals and were not present at the hearing on citizen guarantees. The judiciary does not respond to our inquiries and communicates the progress of the cases through press releases published on official channels.