For years, Nicaragua’s dictatorship was generous to the family of Álvaro Baltodano Cantarero, one of its main economic operators, who was arrested in May on corruption charges. The retired general maintained a bond of loyalty with Daniel Ortega that dated back to the struggle against the Somoza family dynasty.
When Ortega returned to power in 2007, Baltodano Cantarero was appointed Executive Secretary of the Free Trade Zone Corporation. According to a profile of Ortega’s new cabinet, published at the time by Revista Envío of the Central American University, the adviser had been the national campaign chief for Ortega and his party, the FSLN, in their defeat against Enrique Bolaños and the PLC in 2001.
In July 2007, Baltodano’s eldest son was appointed to a diplomatic post. Pablo Baltodano Monroy became Nicaragua’s Consul General in Mexico City, marking the beginning of a phase of diplomatic appointments that did not end with his resignation in May 2012.
According to the official newspaper La Gaceta, his successor was his sister, María Eugenia Baltodano Monroy. Under Presidential Decree 87-2012, her appointment was formalized on the same day her brother’s resignation was accepted. She served as Consul General until August 30, 2018. The diplomatic tenure of both siblings was discreet.
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From a private standpoint, the lives of the retired general’s children made headlines in Mexican media. In 2010, Pablo was reported missing in Veracruz by his distressed relatives, later reappearing without further details being disclosed about the reasons for his disappearance. In 2017, María Eugenia was the victim of a robbery in which bracelets and jewelry worth 13,000 dollars were stolen from her home in the Lomas de Bezares residential area, according to a report by Excélsior.
Uncle Pablo, a millionaire that «worked» in the Nicaraguan embassy
While María Eugenia served as Consul, her uncle, Pablo José Monroy Cazorla—brother of former guerrilla fighter Eugenia Monroy—was listed, beginning in 2013, as investment attaché at Nicaragua’s embassy in that country.
Baltodano Cantarero’s brother-in-law is a wealthy Mexican investor and co-founder of Genomma Lab in 1996, a pharmaceutical products company with a presence in several countries across the region. He was naturalized as a Nicaraguan citizen in 2012, with authorities justifying the decision on the grounds that he had contributed to the nation as an “investor.” He also renounced his original citizenship and has resided in Nicaragua since 1994.
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In 2013, Monroy Cazorla was one of four investors seeking to acquire the rights to the Momotombo geothermal plant concession. The others were Arturo Gamboa Rullán—who lent 8.6 million dollars to make a purchase offer to the outgoing Israeli concessionaires—Guatemalan businessman Fernando Paiz, and Álvaro Baltodano Monroy.
So far, none of them have commented on the arrests of the Baltodanos or the impact on the investments they made between 2014 and 2025, when Momotombo Power Company (MPC) held the concession for the Momotombo geothermal plant. Nearly four months have passed since the retired general’s detention and three months since his son’s, yet total silence remains.
La Prensa reported in an initial article—part of this series—how Álvaro Baltodano Monroy came to control the geothermal business, later turning it into an alleged source of funds for his associates, as his former partner Gamboa Rullán denounced in Florida and New York.
Those allegedly benefiting included a circle of family members and close associates. His sister, former Consul María Eugenia Baltodano Monroy, is among the 11 names of interest for Gamboa and his lawyers. Others include the CEO of the Nicaraguan Electricity Company, Ernesto Martínez Tíffer, and former Energy Minister Emilio Baltodano Rappaccioli.
Also read: How Arce and Baltodano Helped Build the Dictatorship That Now Pursues Them
A legal team from Latam Geothermal Corp in New York is seeking for the Southern District Court of New York to request information from Clearing House—a real-time payment operator based in the same district, which was used by Momotombo Power Company (MPC)—to identify Baltodano Monroy’s irregular transactions.
Intermediate “dynasties” Operate as Mirrors
According to sociologist and politician Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, the appointment of relatives of officials—whether as diplomats or in other positions—is part of the regime’s power structure.
Other examples in the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship include the Campbell Hooker family, with the most notable figures being former Supreme Electoral Council president Lumberto Campbell Hooker and his brother, former ambassador to Washington, Francisco.
Other families that have supported the dictatorship include the Díaz Madriz family, linked to today’s “co-chief” of the Police Forces, Francisco Díaz; the Avilés Castillo family, connected to the Army Chief, Julio César Avilés; and, until recently, the Moncada Lau family of the feared Public Security Adviser, Néstor Moncada Lau, as well as the Baltodano family, headed by clan leader Álvaro Baltodano Cantarero.
Gutiérrez notes that several longstanding issues in Nicaraguan politics—such as caudillismo, nepotism, clientelism, and patrimonialism—remain pervasive.
“Let us remember that central leadership sets a model of governance, and subordinate circuits mirror it at their respective levels, exercising their functions patrimonially. The Campbell family’s role in state areas connected to the Caribbean Coast and the Washington embassy is one of the clearest examples,” he reiterated.
The expert added that countries prone to populist, authoritarian, and autocratic leadership often assume control of the state under patrimonialist schemes, both to maintain political control and to exploit institutions for personal enrichment.
According to journalistic investigations, the Ortega family has managed to establish a private network of companies with stakes in key sectors such as oil, telecommunications, construction, and media. One company where these ties are most evident is the Distribuidora Nicaragüense de Petróleo (DNP), a network of gas stations that once belonged to the state but ended up in the hands of associates.
Also read: The Ortega-Murillo Family, the Most Corrupt Regime in Nicaragua’s History
Under this logic, patrimonialism entails a blurring of the private and the public, “allowing state decisions to respond to the will of the leader and their inner circle,” Gutiérrez adds.
Ortega’s case is not unique in Nicaragua: the same occurred with the Somoza family and also with former president Arnoldo Alemán.
Dictatorship Sanctions “Unauthorized” Corruption
“For a long time, corruption has been widespread and pervasive; from the Ortega-Murillo family to the political secretary who charges a neighbor for a letter of recommendation. Corruption is not an anomaly but a structural part of the patrimonialist logic: what Ortega and Murillo sanction is not the corrupt act itself, but ‘unauthorized corruption,’ when it threatens the broader political project or the dynastic succession,” he explained.
Baltodano and his son were accused by the Attorney General’s Office of creating a network of 20 shell companies to evade their tax obligations. The state has not disclosed further details about these corruption allegations but has launched a campaign purportedly to pursue such offenses.
Experts question the credibility of this state-led campaign, and opposition members denounce it as a “purge” of historic Sandinistas, carried out by Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo. Another notable case in this group involves presidential economic adviser Bayardo Arce, who has been imprisoned since late July for refusing to explain the acquisition of certain assets.
Baltodano and Ortega: A Relationship of 50 Years
With Baltodano Cantarero, Ortega severed a historic five-decade-long bond. Before the insurrection against Somoza, both conspired in the northern front alongside Víctor Tirado, Joaquín Cuadra, Germán Pomares, Hugo Torres, and others.
The testimony of Francisco Rivera, “El Zorro,” documented by Sergio Ramírez, highlights Baltodano Cantarero’s role: he led the Crescencio Rosales combat unit, which operated in Matagalpa and belonged to the FSLN faction known as the Prolonged People’s War (GPP). It was also during this period that he fell in love with Mexican guerrilla fighter Eugenia Monroy, his first wife and mother of his children.
Eugenia Monroy was one of the fighters in San Fabián, the only combat action involving Ortega during the insurrection.
In the 1980s, Baltodano Cantarero played a key role in the operation to assassinate businessman Jorge Salazar Argüello, vice president of COSEP, then continued serving in the Army during the revolution. He was promoted to brigadier general on September 11, 1998, by former President Arnoldo Alemán (1997–2002).
“Shortly after the third electoral defeat (2001, a campaign led by Baltodano), Ortega assigned him to manage relations with the groups, personalities, and political allies of the so-called Convergence. Over the years, Baltodano developed his own profile, separate from the usual conspiracies of his friend (Lenín) Cerna, and gained prestige as a man capable of building consensus,” the Revista Envío report recounted.
The Ortega family is now treating the Baltodanos harshly. “Álvaro Baltodano Monroy’s wife, Claudia Fernández, inquired about her husband in the first days following his arrest and was met with a chilling warning: ‘You better leave, ma’am; neither the car you drive nor the house you live in is yours anymore,’” a source closely monitoring this scandal within the Ortega circle told the press. “The FSLN is worse than the mafia,” the source added, noting that Fernández de Baltodano is already in Mexico.
