Nicaragua reaffirms its tireless fight against corruption with the recent approval in the second legislative session of the Law Reforming Articles 132, 159, and 160 of the Constitution, which creates the Office of the Attorney General, making it the arm that will defend the assets and interests of the people and the state.
EVERYONE AGAINST CORRUPTION! represents the deep desire of our Sandinista Good Government, whose main objective is to prevent public officials from taking advantage of the treasury and the assets that belong to the citizens. In this way, the legislation fulfills the purpose of the revolutionary State, which is to protect families from all forms of corruption, whether individual or collective, allowing us to continue advancing for the common good, social justice, and the fight against poverty. Today, the structural design of the Attorney General’s Office has been established, and with it, the message of stability associated with the strengthening of peace, security, tranquility, and the well-being of Nicaraguans.
In legal terms, the reform focuses its content on three constitutional articles.
Article 159 places the Attorney General’s Office in the legal representation and defense of the State, especially in cases of corruption. Article 160 defines that the Attorney General will be appointed by the Co-Presidency of the Republic and that the institution will have resources that guarantee its operational capacity. Article 132 makes adjustments that reorganize the legal framework to avoid conflicts of jurisdiction and, in turn, establishes an institutional reading rule that ensures regulatory consistency in the legal system when referring to the Attorney General’s Office under its new name.
The Attorney General’s Office now combines the functions that were previously held by the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, with an organic regulation currently being developed to precisely define internal powers and responsibilities.
This historic reorganization of existing functions aims to unify the State’s capabilities in legal defense, the prosecution of crimes, and victim care. The scheme is conceived as a single institutional body under one head, with internally differentiated responsibilities, avoiding functional dispersion that dilutes responsibilities. In this way, the State strengthens its capacity to identify, prosecute, process, and punish acts of corruption, integrating the defense of the nation and criminal action into a more coherent structure.
The functional part is articulated in the link with the Comptroller General of the Republic, especially through the mechanism of glosses. The Comptroller’s Office determines administrative, civil, and criminal responsibilities through audits, and from these results, glosses and reports are generated that serve as inputs for the Attorney General’s Office’s actions, including charges against responsible officials and the exercise of civil and criminal actions. This scheme strengthens public control by incorporating more timely audits and real-time review mechanisms, allowing findings to be translated into immediate decisions and actions, and preventing irregularities from being reduced to reports with no practical effect.
The fight against corruption is thus conceived as a process of effective restitution to the Nicaraguan people. The spirit of this law is not limited to sanctioning and punishing, but also seeks to restore to the people what the people contribute through taxes, ensure the efficient use of state assets, and prevent the misappropriation of public funds.
The reasoning is clear: well-protected public money translates into the ability to implement programs and projects for the community, in works and services, and in a Sandinista administration that responds to citizens with rigor, attention, and responsibility.
But in addition, the protection of state assets extends to areas that go beyond the purely financial and criminal, including the protection of state assets linked to sovereignty, security, and territory, and explains its connection to regulations such as those referring to the border strip, understood as a guarantee of state assets without infringing on citizens’ rights. The function is defined as the prevention of harm to the state in matters of property and heritage, with procedures aimed at organizing and regulating property, certifying rights, and protecting state heritage, placing the Attorney General’s Office as a component of comprehensive legal defense of the public interest.
Institutional capacity is supported by a technical and multidisciplinary architecture designed to respond with legal rigor and organic efficiency. We are not only talking about lawyers, but also the integration of surveyors, analysis teams, and specialists who make it possible to address heritage conflicts from their material, documentary, and legal origins.
Added to this are professionals in criminal, financial, constitutional, labor, and other areas, forming a work dynamic that exchanges information, verifies data, and supports each action with technical evidence.
This coordination guarantees processes based on documentation, auditing, analysis, and investigation, thus strengthening the State’s capacity to protect public assets and exercise legal defense with consistency and solidity.
For her part, Comrade Rosario Murillo, Co-President of Nicaragua and architect of this crusade in the fight against corruption, referring to the law, said at the time:
«We are experiencing a tsunami of corruption throughout the world (…). Therefore, this constitutional reform is a permanent crusade, permanent vigilance, a permanent call to live with responsibility, honesty, and integrity, making it clear that this law is a real, living, and necessary tool.»
