Mohamed Farrara Lashtar, the nephew of late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, has established himself as one of the most trusted top officials in the repressive Sandinista regime of Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega, an extensive profile written by Octavio Enríquez in the country’s Confidencial revealed on Monday.
Lashtar has served Ortega for nearly two decades, since his return to power in 2007. Ortega first became head of state by overthrowing the country’s legitimate government in 1979 and served through 1990. He lost the 1990 election but returned to power by winning the 2007 election.
Ortega is the leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a radical communist guerrilla group and political party that has, in recent years, focused primarily on silencing voices of dissent against Marxism-Leninism and eradicating Catholicism, and Christianity generally, from Nicaragua. Ortega recently outlawed the Holy Week festivities that precede Easter, the holiest holiday for Catholics, and imprisoned multiple Catholic clergy members for alleged “treason.”
Lashtar’s uncle, Qaddafi, was also a radical leftist and ruled Libya from 1969 until former American President Barack Obama ordered an operation to oust him from power in 2011. His tenure was marked by full-throated support for most of the world’s communist and far-left causes and ties to terrorist organizations. Enríquez reported in his profile of Lashtar that, prior to becoming a Nicaraguan official, the dictator’s nephew was believed to serve as a liaison between the Qaddafi regime and Latin American communist terrorist groups including Peru’s Shining Path and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Qaddafi is believed to have been tortured and beaten to death by a militia while attempting to flee the uprising against him following Obama’s operation, as part of NATO, to end his regime, though the exact details of his last hours of life remain unclear to this day.
Libya has not had a functional government since Qaddafi was killed, being ruled instead by two rival governments, one in Tripoli and one in Tobruk, in addition to roving militias and terrorist groups. Multiple of his relatives – most prominently, flamboyant son Saif al-Islam Qaddafi – have attempted, unsuccessfully, to return to power.
Saif al-Islam, son of late Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, is pictured at a ceremony in the southern Libyan city of Ghiryan on August 18, 2007. He has been released after five years in detention, according to his lawyer. (MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images)
Lashtar appears to have avoided most of the fallout of the collapse of the Qaddafi regime through his ties to Nicaragua. Lashtar is currently serving as Nicaragua’s ambassador to Tunisia and Kuwait. Since 2007, Confidencial documented, Lashtar has served as “private secretary to the president; private secretary for international affairs; special ambassador for foreign affairs; delegate for Africa, Middle East, and Arab countries; ambassador to Kuwait and concurrent ambassador to Egypt, Jordan, People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria and Saudi Arabia.”
The Nicaraguan news outlet revealed that Lashtar appeared to have begun his relationship with the Central American country through an appointment under Qaddafi as Libyan ambassador to Managua; he is not believed to have any family or ethnic ties to Nicaragua.
“A source of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), consulted for this report, explained that Lashtar was directly associated with Rafael Ortega Murillo, the eldest son of the presidential couple,” Enríquez explained, “when the Sandinista leader traveled to Libya to collect Gaddafi’s monetary contribution, which occurred with a frequency of one to two times a year, in the stage after the electoral defeat.”
That source claimed that Lashtar’s role would be to ensure that Qaddafi’s monetary contributions to the FSLN and other Latin American terrorist organizations would end up in the right hands. The source claimed it was common for Rafael Ortega Murillo to order Lashtar, for example, “to assist the Peruvians,” meaning the Shining Path communists. The outlet also noted evidence tying Lashtar to “millions in funding” from his uncle to the FARC. Both groups remain active terrorist threats in their respective countries as of 2023.
Confidencial obtained access to Lashtar’s Nicaraguan legal documents, reportedly showing that he became a Nicaraguan citizen in 1990, as Ortega’s first stint in power ended. With Ortega’s election in 2007, Lashtar rapidly rose in the diplomatic ranks in the country.
Most recently, Lashtar has vocally supported Ortega’s violent repression of dissidents, particularly Christians, in the country. Lashtar published an opinion piece in February comparing Ortega’s vicious assault against pro-democracy dissidents in 2018 – which killed hundreds of peaceful demonstrators, specifically targeting Catholic clergy and churches – to the January 6 Capitol riot and the January 8 protests against leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil. Lashtar called the protests a “coup” and accused opponents of Ortega of “treason.”
The United States sanctioned Lashtar in 2021, branding him a “specially designated person” with limited access to America and its funding, for his ties to Ortega.
“Mohamed Farrara Lashtar (Lashtar) is the Nicaraguan Ambassador to Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates,” the U.S. Treasury noted at the time. “Lashtar is designated for being an official of the Government of Nicaragua or for having served as an official of the Government of Nicaragua at any time on or after January 10, 2007.”
Despite his ties to multiple violent regimes and sanctions on his person, Lashtar is far from a global pariah. Last year, “Comrade” Lashtar led the Nicaraguan delegation to COP27, the United Nations’ climate alarmism conference in the luxury resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.