Earlier this year, a local daily published a story based on declarations by a high-ranking police officer who said that some judges here received payoffs from Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel to have arrested drug traffickers set free. A quick glance at results from several cases over recent years shows that with unusual frequency, major drug busts resulted in no convictions, much to the frustration of the police force that had gone to all the trouble of setting the traps. The Association of Judges and Magistrates of Nicaragua (AJUMANIC), feeling that the reputation of their profession was being besmirched, right away threatened the police and the newspaper with a lawsuit for slander.

National Police Chief Aminta Granera quickly clarified that the information from the police source referred only to “particular, very specific cases.” The outcome of the trials in the months to come will shed more light on this situation.