Both, Costa Rica’s Immigration and the Intelligence and Security Directorate (DIS) rule out that Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua, has recently entered Costa Rica. According to the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME), Ortega, 74, does not present records of entry or exit from the country in 2020 or 2019.
In fact, his last visit to Costa Rica was in January 2015, when he participated in the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), which took place at the Pedregal events center, in Belén de Heredia.
On that occasion, Ortega generated controversy when he snuck in the summit, the Puerto Rican independentist, Rubén Berríos. In that same event, Ortega tried to lead Berríos to the enclosure in which only rulers and foreign ministers were going to participate, after deceiving the Government of Costa Rica with the accreditation of the Puerto Rican politician.
For his part, at noon Monday, the director of the DIS, Eduardo Trejos, denied that Ortega had recently entered the country.
“No, not at all, he did not enter by any official means (…), ” said Trejo, who asserted that, between June 2016 and July 2018, when he served as Costa Rica’s ambassador to Managua; and during the almost two years that he has led the DIS; the Sandinista leader does not have any record of entry into Costa Rican territory.
He explained that the foreign leaders who arrive in Costa Rica, both officially and unofficially, must carry out all the migratory entry procedures.
He cited the recent examples of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December last; and Luis Lacalle, then President-elect of Uruguay, who visited Costa Rica in late 2019 and went through immigration controls.
“So there is no exception. Official or unofficial, no matter the type of visits, all immigration procedures are always followed,” Trejos reiterated.
On Monday, Costa Rican journalist Glenda Umaña posted her official Facebook page that Ortega was recently in Costa Rica, at the CIMA hospital in Escazu, for medical treatment. See our report The Invisible Man: Daniel Ortega Would Have Gotten Medical Treatment in Costa Rica.
In recent days, given that Daniel Ortega has been absent from appearing in public for almost a month, despite the fact that Nicaragua faces the challenges of the covid-19, fueling a lot of speculation, suppositions, rumors, and gossip of the Nicaraguan leader’s health, including being infected with the covid-19 and his death.
In her opinion, Nicaraguan journalist Lucia Pinedo of 100% Noticias, who was imprisoned by Ortega in December 2018 at the height of that country’s sociopolitical turmoil, writes that in times of crisis Ortega disappears, later to reappear in a “resurrection show”.
“Daniel Ortega will soon come out of his eternal quarantine,” wrote Pineda, who assures that Ortega has the habit of “disappearing” in what she calls a “show”, leaving his wife and vice-president, Rosario Murillo, to face the nation.
Several children of the Nicaraguan power couple live in Costa Rica, including Zoilamerica Murillo, who has been openly critical of her parents.
