Ortega and Murillo change the General Secretariat of the MTI with two presidential agreements

The Presidency of the Republic accepted the resignation of Rosa Argentina Guadamuz Castillo as General Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI) and appointed María Leticia Arellano González in her place, through Presidential Agreements No. 138-2026 and 139-2026, published in La Gaceta, Official Gazette No. 194 on Thursday, October 22, 2026. Both instruments were signed on October 20, 2026, at the Government House, Managua, and take effect from their publication.

The two agreements appear in Section I of the official gazette, dedicated to the Government House, on pages 10282 and 10283 of the edition. They were issued by the Presidency of the Republic, exercised by Co-President Daniel Ortega Saavedra and Co-President Rosario Murillo Zambrana, “in use of the powers conferred upon them by the Political Constitution,” and each is limited to two articles: the first with the substantive decision and the second with the clause regarding validity and publication.

Resignation accepted in the General Secretariat

Presidential Agreement No. 138-2026 resolves, in its first article, to accept the resignation of Rosa Argentina Guadamuz Castillo from the position of General Secretary of the MTI. The text expressly identifies the position and its regulatory origin:

• Position: General Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.
• Original appointment: Presidential Agreement No. 114-2019.
• Publication of said appointment: La Gaceta, Official Gazette No. 150 of August 8, 2019.

The agreement does not state the reasons for the resignation nor mention the subsequent destination of the outgoing official; it is limited to accepting it and ordering its publication in the official gazette.

New appointment and signing competencies

Presidential Agreement No. 139-2026, published on the following page, appoints María Leticia Arellano González as General Secretary of the MTI. The first article lists the powers accompanying the position:

• The signing of all documents related to the administration of the Ministry.
• The documents necessary for the disbursement of national and foreign funds.
• The documents derived from the execution of projects.
• All of the above subject to compliance with the procedures established in said Ministry.

This is, therefore, the position that enables the signing of disbursement documents and project execution for the institution, not an administrative processing secretariat.

Immediate validity and context of the edition

Both instruments share the same final clause: the agreement “takes effect from its publication” and it is ordered to be published in La Gaceta, Official Gazette. Having been disclosed on October 22, 2026, the substitution in the General Secretariat of the MTI was formalized on that date.

The edition containing the two agreements is No. 194, corresponding to Year CXXX, consisting of 40 pages, with a print run of 380 copies and a value of 45 córdobas. Also published in the same issue were Presidential Decree No. 11-2026, ratifying the agreement on the World Organization for Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence; Presidential Agreement No. 137-2026, which authorizes a loan contract with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) for 170 million dollars destined for drinking water systems with ENACAL as the executing agency; and MIFIC Ministerial Agreement No. 010-2026 regarding the international reference price of coffee.

The change in the General Secretariat of the MTI is significant because that office centralizes the signing of documents for administration, disbursement, and execution of ministry projects: any replacement in the position alters the authorization chain for the institution’s national and foreign funds. The simultaneous publication of the resignation and the appointment, effective from the same day, prevents a vacuum in the institutional signature and provides public record of who is responsible for MTI disbursements as of October 22, 2026.

Source: La Gaceta, Official Gazette No. 194, Thursday, October 22, 2026, Section I (Government House), pp. 10282-10283 (official reference: Presidential Agreements No. 138-2026 and No. 139-2026).