They fought side by side in Nicaragua with Daniel Ortega in the 1970s, back when the Sandinistas were rebels trying to topple a brutal dictatorship that had ruled the country for more than four decades.
Many joined Mr. Ortega when he first became president, running the country in the 80s, and again when he took office a second time nearly 20 years ago.
But now many of these loyal trusted associates who remained close to Mr. Ortega for decades find themselves accused of crimes — and in jail or under house arrest.
From members of the original ruling Sandinista Party national directorate to high-ranking military officers and even a family member, Mr. Ortega and his co-president and wife, Rosario Murillo, are purging even the closest of former friends and allies.
In a country already known for widespread arbitrary arrests and a lack of political freedom, the detentions of longtime Sandinista partisans mark a remarkable escalation of an offensive against anyone who might challenge the ruling couple’s authority.
But the dismantling of the leftist Sandinista party’s inner circle appears to be not solely the work of Mr. Ortega, but actually driven by Ms. Murillo. She is considered the true power in Nicaragua, and has helped turn the Central American country into one of the most repressive states in Latin America.
Over the past year Ms. Murillo has increased her authority through constitutional changes widely viewed as a power-grab, a new paramilitary force loyal to the government and the wholesale dismantling of the judiciary, which gave the presidency more control over the courts.
Experts believe she is trying to eliminate any potential rivals and pave the way for her to become Nicaragua’s eventual sole authoritarian leader.
“They are purging people in key positions,” said Alberto Cortés, a Nicaragua expert at the University of Costa Rica. “Everyone is asking: Is the next one me?”
Bayardo Arce, a former guerrilla revolutionary fighter turned economic adviser, was the last of the original nine Sandinista commanders who ruled in the 1980s to remain at Mr. Ortega’s side. He did so for more than 50 years, even as many other Sandinista leaders abandoned the party, accusing its leadership of corruption and authoritarianism. Many have been arrested or forced into exile.
Today, even the last man standing has fallen.
Mr. Arce, 76, was arrested in July after prosecutors said he had failed to respond to a summons for questioning over what they said were irregularities with properties he owns. Mr. Arce has been a controversial figure for years, having amassed great wealth while espousing leftist ideology and holding ill-defined government posts.
His surprising arrest this summer, experts say, proved that no one in Nicaragua is immune from the presidential couple’s quest to tighten their already iron grip on power.
His demise surely came at the orders of Ms. Murillo, they said. After years of serving as a relentlessly hardworking first lady, she became vice president in 2017, and then early this year assumed the newly created position of “co-president.”
As Mr. Ortega approaches 80, experts say his wife, 74, seems obsessively determined to get rid of her rivals.
Ms. Murillo did not respond to a request for comment.
Nestor Moncada Lau, a national security adviser who was believed to be one of the principal people responsible for a violent crackdown on protests in 2018, has been imprisoned at the national penitentiary since Aug. 16, after being questioned about a property confiscation, according to Confidencial, a Nicaraguan newspaper that operates from Costa Rica.
In May, a retired brigadier general, Álvaro Baltodano Cantarero, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for treason and his assets were ordered confiscated. Henry Ruiz, who like Mr. Arce was one of the original nine Sandinista commanders, was put under house arrest in March. No charges were made public.
Mr. Ortega’s brother, Humberto Ortega, who led the army under the Sandinista’s first rule, died in September after four months of house arrest. His arrest came after Humberto Ortega, who was also one of the original nine Sandinista leaders, publicly referred to his brother as a dictator.
Lenin Cerna, a former colonel who served as head of the feared state security agency in the 1980s, was also reportedly arrested, but rumors of his detention had surfaced before and proved false, Nicaraguan media reported.
“Purges aren’t new, but purges of extremely prominent loyalists are pretty new,” said Karen Kampwirth, a political science professor at Knox College in Illinois who is writing a biography of Ms. Murillo. “I think her thinking is that she has no legitimacy at all among the ‘historic’ Sandinistas — the people who came out of the guerrilla struggle.”
The campaign seems directed at any former guerrilla fighter respected by leaders in the armed forces and by other longtime party members, experts said.
Ms. Murillo is afraid that as long as people like Mr. Arce remain in office, longtime party faithful in the military would support them after Mr. Ortega dies, Ms. Kampwirth said.
“There could be a group in the military that would coalesce behind him,” she said. “Nobody is going to coalesce behind her.”
Mr. Cortes, from the University of Costa Rica, wonders whether Ms. Murillo’s moves will backfire and cause party loyalists in the military to move against her.
Ms. Murillo and Mr. Ortega met in the 1970s, while the Sandinista rebels were waging an armed rebellion against the Somozas, a dynastic right-wing dictatorship that ruled Nicaragua for more than 40 years.
Though they have been together for decades and she ran safe houses during their time in hiding, Ms. Murillo never held a rebel leadership position and is not considered an important revolutionary figure.
Still, when Mr. Ortega returned to office in 2007, she became the true power behind his presidency. She worked endless hours and involved herself in all manner of minutiae — such as serving as government spokeswoman and doling out land titles to the poor — which caused friction with veteran party leaders loyal to Mr. Ortega.
In their nearly 20 years in power, the couple, beyond ousting opponents, were accused of rigging elections and ting control of the national assembly and the Supreme Court.
“She knows she doesn’t have the political strength that Daniel has to stay in power,” said Dora María Téllez, a former Sandinista health minister who broke from the party decades ago, was imprisoned in 2021, and now lives in exile in Spain.
With the separation of powers eliminated, all branches of government report to Ms. Murillo, Ms. Téllez said. She pushed through the constitutional changes that created the position of “co-president,” but notably, though she has held the co-president title since January, a vice president has not been named to replace her.
One of the couple’s sons, Laureano, is widely viewed as being groomed to succeed his parents. An opera singer, he has served as an adviser on international investments and plays a key role in the country’s relationships with China, Russia and Iran.
But even he has not been tapped to fill the vacant vice presidency, which experts say underscores Ms. Murillo’s desire to be the only person in a position to take her husband’s place.
Experts say Ms. Murillo’s fixation on who might succeed her husband coincides with rumors swirling about his failing health. In recent months he has seemed diminished in his rare public appearances, Ms. Téllez said.
The arrests of so many of his closest allies while he is still alive suggest that Mr. Ortega has either given his blessing to them or lost the capacity to protect the people closest to him, she said.
Ms. Murillo has tried to build her own following among younger members of the ruling party, known formally as the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or F.S.L.N.
“One thing this shows is that no one is untouchable within the F.S.L.N.,” said Kai Thaler, a global studies professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It also shows very firmly that longtime loyalty to the party, and to Daniel, is not going to protect you.”