The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) put an end to a 17-year dispute with the State of Nicaragua, by handing over two pieces of land located in the vicinity of Avenida Bolívar, which will be used to expand the parking lot and green areas of the headquarters of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Managua.
Before the 1972 earthquake in Managua, the well-known Balmoral hotel was located on these donated lands. CABEI in 2005, according to publications in the newspaper La Prensamaintained a claim with the State of Nicaragua, alleging that the land where the current headquarters of the Foreign Ministry was built belonged to it.
In La Gaceta, Official State Gazette, this Wednesday, January 11, the presidential agreement 06-2023 was published, in which the Attorney General of the Republic so that, on behalf of the State, he subscribes with the representative of CABEI the donation of the two lands, “irrevocably free of charge”, according to the publication.
The same presidential agreement details that these lands, located in the so-called Historic Center of Managua, have a combined area of 336 square meters and will be used to expand the Foreign Ministry parking lot and its green areas.
CABEI warned in 2005 about land
The land located in the so-called Historic Center of Managua passed into the hands of the State after the confiscation processes that occurred during the first Sandinista dictatorship in the 1980s of the last century.
The La Prensa publication cites that on October 19, 2005, the then CABEI country manager in Nicaragua, Fernando Basterrechea Díaz, sent a letter to Ernesto Leal, Secretary General of the Presidency during the Administration of Enrique Bolaños, warning that the entity Financiera “owned four plots of land located in the urban area of Managua, where the Balmoral hotel was located before and which are currently located inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.”
On that occasion, CABEI made clear its openness to negotiating compensation for these lands through the figure of the exchange. In the presidential agreement published in La Gaceta, no details of these claims are given, or if these lands are part of the exchange requested by CABEI 17 years ago.
CABEI and its “excellent relations” with the Ortega dictatorship
However, it is a fact that the CABEI maintains an excellent relationship with the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, which was sealed with the construction of the headquarters of the financial entity in Managua, located in Plaza Cobirsa, at a cost of 16.5 million dollars.
On September 12, 2022, CONFIDENTIAL revealed the first findings of a study on CABEI operations carried out by Hugo Martínez, former Salvadoran Foreign Minister, and also former Secretary General of SICA. The study detailed that Nicaragua is currently the recipient of the largest share of CABEI loans, with 26% of the portfolio; followed by Costa Rica with 21%; El Salvador 18%; then Honduras 12%, and Guatemala 8%.
The study itself also recommended that CABEI align itself with the commitments acquired by the Governments with the validity of democracy and human rights.
The same president of CABEI, the Honduran Dante Mossi, It was pronounced in July 2022, describing as “unfair” the international sanctions that have been imposed against more than 60 high-ranking officials of the regime that governs Nicaragua, accused of corruption, human rights violations, and sabotage of democracy.
“There is a sanctions regime that is unfair, because a person is accused and judged without due process, but these are the rules of the international game,” he said, referring to the sanctions imposed against the officials of the regime by the United States, Canada, the European Union and Great Britain, among others.
Mossi openly advocated the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega that keeps 220 political prisoners in jail, including seven presidential candidates arrested in 2021, when canceling the political competition in the general elections on November 7 of that year.
Various sources have pointed to CONFIDENTIAL that Mossi is preparing his re-election campaign at the head of CABEI, which would explain his condescension with the Daniel Ortega regime.
