Nicaragua’s communist regime authorized the establishment of a Russian-made “Instruction Center” for the “reengineering” of the Nicaraguan police, authorities confirmed last week.

Local media and experts have denounced the center as a possible “cover-up” for a prospective Russian spy agency in the Central American nation.

The Nicaraguan National Assembly approved the construction of the training center on Thursday as part of an agreement between Nicaragua and Russia for the “retraining and professional improvement” of Nicaragua’s police. The deal followed Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolái Pátrushev’s visit to Managua in February, where he met with dictator Daniel Ortega.

 

Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa reported on Monday that the center will conduct its activities under the direction of Russian personnel, who will have the same immunity and privileges granted to foreign diplomats accredited in the country and will have “no obligation to account to the Nicaraguan authorities for their actions in the country.”

La Prensa cited an unnamed international relations expert who reviewed the agreement and asserted that the purpose of the center is to “install a spying intelligence platform in Nicaragua, to extend it beyond Nicaragua, probably to other countries of interest in Central America and the Caribbean, but also to confront the United States more closely.”

The construction of the police “instruction center” will be independently carried out by Russia at its own expense. Russia will own the property and control of the finished facilities. Should the agreement between both countries end, the facilities and all of its assets will reportedly remain in control of Russia, which will have the “right to use the real estate objects and the training center for purposes not related to the execution” of the agreement.

An unnamed expert cited by the Nicaraguan newspaper Confidencial stated that, in practice, the Ortega regime gave “a piece of the country” away to Russia, as Moscow will be in complete control of the purported police training center, which could serve as a “front” for other activities.

Another unnamed expert cited by Confidencial warned that if the “practical” or operational management of the center is in the hands of Russia, it opens the door to appointing an agent of the Federal Security Bureau (KGB) to control the facility.

“The Ortega regime is raising the bar in the geopolitical game. The content, treatment, and structure they plan to give to that center, looks more like a spy agency,” the expert commented to Confidencial.

“It is going to be the first Russian intelligence center in Central America,” the expert added.

Javier Meléndez, director of the Nicaraguan research center Expediente Abierto (“Open File”) explained to Confidencial that the Russian consulting and training the facility will provide is “oriented towards the protection of the dictatorship.”

“This is undoubtedly serious for Nicaraguans because added to the espionage environment supported by the Cubans, there will be a greater militarization of the police forces and the dynamic of continuing to repress the people instead of fighting crime will continue,” Meléndez said.

The issue of the training of police forces in autocratic countries like Nicaragua by Russian security advisors, says Meléndez, represents risks and challenges, related to more repression and more human rights violations.

Police officers and riot police patrol outside Matagalpa’s Archbishop Curia preventing Monsignor Rolando Alvarez from leaving, in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, on August 4, 2022.  Riot police prevented Nicaraguan Bishop, Rolando Alvarez, from leaving the church building to preside at a Mass as part of a “prayer crusade” being carried out by the church, following the closure of several Catholic media outlets and allegations of harassment. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

“There are experiences in other regions where training provided by Russian advisers has exacerbated internal conflicts in countries already facing ethnic, political or social tensions,” Meléndez stressed.

The upcoming police training center is not the first Russian-built agency in Nicaragua. In 2017, the Ortega regime inaugurated the Russia-Nicaragua Anti-Narcotics Training Center in Managua.

In September 2023, during the 44th anniversary of the Nicaraguan Police, Daniel Ortega admitted that the anti-narcotics training center built by Russia helped his regime “stop the coup,” meaning the 2018 wave of anti-communist protests in the country.

“The military who specialize in the matter carry out courses with the participation of the whole Central American region and, logically, the National Police, to better confront drug trafficking, organized crime, to better confront the coup plotters,” Ortega said at the time.

During the event, Ortega honored Russian General Oleg Anatolyevich Plokhoi for the support provided to his communist regime.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.