Nicaragua’s National Assembly approved an agreement to establish a Russia-funded and administered police training center. This measure, which the Daniel Ortega regime pushed through in mid-March, raises concerns about the real intentions behind the Russia-Nicaragua cooperation.
“In the post-pandemic, Ortega renewed the authorization for Russian military operations, which together with this new center evidences the strategic and geopolitical course that the dictatorship adopted,” Jorge Serrano, a member of the team of advisors of the Peruvian Congress Intelligence Commission, told Diálogo on April 8.
Decree no. 8873, published on April 2 in the regime’s official gazette, details the agreement between Nicaragua and Russia, stressing the importance of police activity in confronting challenges and threats to public security.
According to the agreement the goal is to train Nicaraguan police forces and those of other Latin American and Caribbean nations, Argentine news site Infobae reported. The police center will be run entirely by the Russian Interior Ministry.
“Nicaragua is Russia’s strategic ally in Central America,” Laureano Ortega Murillo, an advisor to the dictatorship and Ortega’s son, told reporters. “We position ourselves as its regional platform in all fields and we are committed to enhancing Moscow’s influence and action in our region.”
A clause in the agreement grants the Russian personnel of the new center to be exempt from any criminal, civil, or administrative liability before Nicaraguan laws, from all actions carried out in the fulfillment of their functions.
Article 7 specifies that the National Police will provide surveillance service, basic utilities, and translation at no cost to the Russians. In addition, the Police will help in registering the ownership of the land and buildings acquired by the Kremlin to establish the center, Nicaraguan newspaper Confidencial reported.
Espionage base
According to Confidencial, based on the signed agreement, Ortega ceded a part of the territory to Moscow, without state control, opening the door for the Kremlin to appoint agents of the Federal Security Service (the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB) to operate freely in Nicaragua.
“Nicaragua has positioned itself as a key player for non-Western nations such as Russia, Iran, and China, acting as a kind of aircraft carrier into the region. It uses its territory to expand its influence and conduct operations in Latin America,” Serrano said.
The police training center will be a “nest of espionage” rather than a police training center, Serrano added. This would not be the first time Russia has set up an agency on Nicaraguan soil. In October 2017, it inaugurated the Russia-Nicaragua Anti-Narcotics Training Center, Confidencial reported.
In April 2017, Moscow inaugurated its global satellite navigation system known as Glonass in the Nicaraguan capital, Infobae reported. From 2013 to date, Russia has established nine of these satellite ground stations outside its territory. The last one was installed in Nicaragua.
The Russian presence in Latin America has intensified, “evidencing the activity of the Russian intelligence service in the region,” Serrano said. According to him, “evidence has been collected of these covert operations, designed to go unnoticed and avoid detection by regional authorities.”
In addition, “secret meetings have been held between Managua and Moscow to coordinate actions through their intelligence services to perpetrate attacks against the United States and against Latin American nations still aligned with democratic principles, seeking to destabilize the region in a domino effect,” Serrano added.
Tasks and equipment
The training of foreign police forces will be carried out at the center and at different locations in Nicaragua. The main tasks of the center will include training and education of police personnel, as well as organization and holding of seminars, workshops, conferences, and other events of “educational and scientific” nature.
The Kremlin will provide the center with all necessary equipment, including forensic tools, technical teaching aids, publications, teaching, and scientific materials. It will also provide teachers, financial, and logistical support, to ensure the operation of the unit for an initial period of 10 years, the agreement details.
Change of strategy
“Russia has modified its tactics in Latin America: It has eliminated intermediaries such as Cuba or Venezuela to establish a direct connection with the Nicaraguan dictatorship, privileging its strategic position and its capacity to destabilize the region,” Serrano said. “This decision highlights the importance that the Kremlin attaches to Nicaragua in its regional strategy.”
Russia, Serrano said, will attempt to escalate any conflict in the region by using Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, and other regional leaders, to facilitate its geopolitical objectives. “This strategy seeks to take advantage of existing tensions to expand its influence in the continent,” he said.
“In the face of this growing threat, the response of democracies must be to form solid alliances among their governments, recognizing and understanding the nature of the Russian threat,” Serrano concluded. “It is key to strengthen cooperation between the intelligence services of democratic nations, to take effective and joint measures.”