The regime sinks an increasingly impoverished country, where investment possibilities are rapidly diluting.
official media. Networks/NI
Faced with a scenario where properties are confiscated from citizens and non-governmental organizations, and also the legal status of business associations such as the Superior Council for Private Enterprise (COSEP) and its chambers are cancelled, the Ortega regime creates a terrible image internationally. that scares away investors, according to experts.
For the researcher and director of the Migration, Remittances and Development Program of the Inter-American Dialogue, Manuel OrozcoOrtega is showing the world a Nicaragua where “legal security does not exist.”
“The image that Ortega gives is the same as it was years ago, of a government in which legal security does not exist, and canceling and confiscating the assets of the chambers only confirms that it is a country in which you cannot invest unless that you want to keep your head down or ally with the government”, explains the expert.
The economist and political analyst, Enrique Saenz, also agrees with Orozco. In his program La economía de Nicaragua en 10 minutos, he affirmed that the Ortega regime is “hitting” the business community as a whole and that the impact goes further, amid mistrust and the fact that “it does not respect any type of right or any kind of freedom.
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Fall in investment capital
“The different sectors and the different economic activities are connected… the whole of the economic activity suffers and also those who are not entrepreneurs. Less employment and less income,” he explains. saenz.
The fact that the Daniel Ortega regime has taken away the legal status of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP) and 18 of its business chambers, only sinks an increasingly impoverished country, where investment possibilities are rapidly diluting and proof of this are the numbers presented by the Central Bank of Nicaragua in the first quarter of 2022, where a drop of 189.7 million dollars in capital contributions compared to the first quarter of 2021, in addition to the decline in the Communications and Energy and Mining sectors.
“In terms of the regime’s strategy, the elimination of the cameras is consistent with the scorched earth method, of ending all types of institutional intermediation between society and the state, in such a way that the State under the control of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have absolute control and monopoly of authority over the private and public life of citizens”, details orozco.
At the discretion of Enrique Saenzthe Daniel Ortega regime has been suffocating little by little the business union through “harassment” of the General Directorate of Revenues (DGI), General Directorate of Customs (DGA), corruption, bribery and having to face the “unfair competition with public tenders”, in the midst of an adverse environment where the high prices of fuels, energy and other factors, drown national and foreign investors who are in the country.
Ortega does not “care about Nicaraguans”
“According to official data, private investment has been declining in recent months and consequently the ability to generate greater economic activity, more jobs and higher income for the population has also been declining, with this coup, with this dictatorial blow, this fall is going to be more pronounced… It hits the companies, but it also hits Nicaraguan families with this irresponsible dictatorial blow, which shows once again that the dictator and his clique do not care about Nicaragua or Nicaraguans,” he says. saenz.
With all these desperate measures, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship aims to “eliminate all legal figure unless it is the one they promote and create,” says the researcher Manuel Orozco. A perspective not far from what it aims Enrique Saenz.
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“The businessmen, after this measure (cancellation of the legal status of COSEP and chambers), feel the machete of the dictatorship weighing on their necks and their properties. The first impact is on small, medium and large investments,” he said. saenz in his program Let’s go to the point.
The outlook for Nicaragua this 2023 is not encouraging. In his report “The limited prospects for economic growth in Nicaragua”, Manuel Orozco states that the Ortega regime has “criminalized democracy and economic policy (extortion, expulsion, tax sanctions). ”, which is far from the recommendations provided by the International Monetary Fund.
Dictatorship “does not respect any rights”
The measures adopted by the regime oppose the points that investors take into account when directing their capital to a country, but also shows a terrible image before international financial organizations such as the IMF, World Bank, IDB and CABEI, which have disbursed juicy loans to Nicaragua, something that could change in the not too distant future and would have repercussions on the national banks, which would be forced to pay high interest, according to Enrique Saenz.
Avalanche of NGO cancellations and “voluntary disbandments” continues
“International financing sources, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and CABEI (Central American Bank for Economic Integration), have granted significant credits to the dictatorship over the last few years… with these outrages to the business sector, which is one of those privileged by these institutions, because they will surely think about it three and four times before giving a penny to the dictatorship”, explains the economist.
As for investors, Enrique Saenz details that the economic impact is great, because if they had planned to invest their capital in Nicaragua, they are not going to “take risks in the face of a dictatorship that has shown that does not respect any rights”.
