MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaraguan guerrilla fighter Humberto Ortega, a Sandinista defense minister who later in life became a critic of his older brother President Daniel Ortega, has died at age 77, Nicaragua's government announced Monday.

The younger Ortega became the head of the Sandinista army and the country’s defense minister after the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979.

Later in life, Humberto Ortega publicly criticized some actions of his brother’s increasingly repressive administrations.

He had been ill and effectively under house arrest for some time and died Monday at a military hospital, according to a statement by the Nicaraguan military posted on social media.