Last night Roberto Somoza, the mayor of Ciudad Sandino, was physically removed from office by the Nicaraguan National Police after months of political tug-of-wars (see our post). The background to the disagreement is complex: the former mayor, Raymundo Flores, has been accused of misappropriating funds – as much as $75,000 according to the Comptroller General’s office – and Somoza has been accused of not carrying out his duties and of nepotism for putting family members in public office. What the accusations appear to boils down to is a larger division in the Sandinista party in Ciudad Sandino. Since the October attack on the mayor’s office, tension has been escalating and it finally culminated in Somoza’s forced removal from office last night.
According to El Nuevo Diario, Somoza and his sympathizers are planning a march today to protest his removal.
“It seems as though it’s prohibited to govern with transparency in these times,” Somoza told a group of supporters in the Plaza last night. “We are here to publicly denounce this injustice which violates all legal precepts, violates the Constitution and the Municipalities Law.”
The vice mayor, Juana Cuarezma, was also forcibly removed from office, allegedly after refusing to collaborate in the ousting of Somoza. Appearing beside Somoza last night, she emphasized the Sandinista party split by declaring “This is not the Sandinsta Front that we have been working for.”
Somoza accuses a group of Sandinista functionaries of openly threatening to oust him. Sandinista city council members, armed with a letter of removal from office from the Supreme Electoral Council, arrived at Somoza’s office last night with police officials and removed Somoza from office. According to El Nuevo Diario, the official reason for removal from office is unknown, and the article mentions other mayors and vice mayors removed from office in the past two weeks in other parts of the country, also for “unknown causes.”
Two functionaries loyal to Flores have been named as acting mayor and vice mayor.
