The Nicaraguan newspaper Confidencial reported on Sunday that Russia established a spy center in one of Nicaragua’s military bases under the auspices of the country’s communist regime.
Confidencial, citing unnamed sources in the Nicaraguan military, warned in its report that the communist regime uses the spy base’s systems to monitor embassies and detect possible “traitors” of dictator Daniel Ortega.
The Russian spy base is reportedly housed in an Army base located in Mount Mokorón, south of the capital city of Managua. The base, known as “Unit 502,” is part of the Nicaraguan Army’s Directorate of Military Intelligence and Counterintelligence (DICIM). According to Confidencial, DICIM processes information received by the Army’s radio direction-finding systems that “geographically locates telephone, television, or radio signals generated in the radioelectric spectrum, as part of the national defense strategy.”
The newspaper claimed that Russia turned the base into one of its main spy centers over several years and that Russian personnel are the only ones who control and manipulate both the equipment and the information obtained, while Nicaraguan officials provide “security” at the base.
The sources explained that the Russian soldiers in the spy base are accompanied by a Nicaraguan lieutenant colonel who serves as a translator to “guide and train” Nicaraguan soldiers.
“The installation and start-up of the Russian spy equipment was supervised by Brigadier General Leonel Gutiérrez López, head of the DICIM,” Confidencial stated, citing the unnamed sources.
One of the sources further explained to Confidencial that Russia installed antennas and other espionage equipment in several Nicaraguan military bases in mid-2017 — the same year that the Ortega regime inaugurated a Russia-Nicaragua Anti-Narcotics Training Center in Managua.
In September 2023, during the 44th anniversary of the Nicaraguan Police, Ortega admitted that the anti-narcotics training center built by Russia helped implement his regime crackdown on dissidents during the 2018 wave of anti-communist protests, when thousands took to the streets to demand an end of the Ortega regime’s decades-long authoritarian rule of Nicaragua. The Ortega regime’s repressive response to the protests left over 300 dead.
Four Russian officers who were the only ones who understood the spy equipment, the source further pointed out, directed the antenna installation process. Nicaraguan officers and soldiers carried out the construction works.
The alleged Russian-run spy center in Mokorón received one such “giant” satellite dish at the end of 2017 alongside other Russian-made equipment installed on one of the base’s surrounding buildings. According to Confidencial, the base now features five antennas.
The base’s original “giant” antenna, one of the sources explained, is “similar” to one installed in the ground station of the Global Navigation Satellite System (Glonass), a base located at the slopes of the Nejapa Lagoon in the outskirts of Managua. The base is believed to also serve as a Russian intelligence center in Nicaragua.
“Everyone talks about the base in Nejapa, but the real Russian espionage center is in Mokorón. Few know of the existence of that satellite dish,” one of the sources told Confidencial.
The newspaper listed eight other locations across the country where the Nicaraguan Army has antennas and other radio listening systems in addition to the Russian spy center in Mount Mokorón, which acts as a coordination center.
The sources warned that Russia provided the listening stations with the SORM-3 software that allows the facilities to spy and listen to the communications of their “targets,” as well as those of the Ortega regime’s “internal enemies.”
“Access [to the Mokorón base] is very restricted. They track all types of communications, above all from embassies, mainly the gringo one,” another source stated. “Also some internal [phone] numbers, although the latter is very well developed by the National Police.”
“The DICIM is totally subordinated to Russian technology. No Nicaraguan [military] officer knows the extent of its tracking and listening control,” the source continued.
A former senior military officer commented to the newspaper that Ortega has increased his regime’s “self-surveillance” capabilities to detect possible traitors and wondered “what opposition are they going to spy on in Nicaragua, if all the opposition leaders are already outside, banished, or self-exiled.”
“This union with the Russians is for internal espionage, to watch over the military itself, and the police, the people trusted by Daniel and Rosario [Murillo, Ortega’s wife and vice president],” the former military officer asserted.
Russia has noticeably increased its support to Nicaragua in the past few years, particularly for for the espionage and repression of dissidents following the 2018 wave of anti-communist protests. In March, Ortega authorized the establishment of a Russian-made “Instruction Center” for the “retraining and professional improvement” of the Nicaraguan police that experts have denounced as a possible “cover-up” for another prospective Russian spy agency in the country.
The announcement of the new alleged instruction center occurred weeks after Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolái Pátrushev’s visited Managua in February to sign several agreements with dictator Ortega, including a “cooperation protocol” agreement between Nicaragua’s police and Russia’s Interior Ministry to have Russia “retrain” Nicaraguan police officers to bolster the Ortega regime’s repressive capabilities.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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