The threats of “sanctions” issued this Saturday by the dictator Daniel Ortega against the Nicaraguan banks, to which he announced that they are being investigated under the accusation of “complicity” in alleged acts of fraud, with opponents that have been confiscated, is a “serious accusation”, which will surely materialize and that will bring consequences for the national banking system, and more poverty in the country because it drives away investment, warn analysts consulted by Article 66.
On Saturday, May 18, during the celebration of the 129th anniversary of the birth of Augusto C. Sandino, the dictator Ortega referred to the confiscations carried out against people who opposed his regime, businessmen, NGOs and the Catholic Church and assured that the confiscated by “criminals” and “swindlers.” He then said that some banks have “jumped” at the confiscations and that is why they are being investigated and those found to be “guilty” will be “sanctioned.”
For the doctor in economics and master in social policies, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, the threats launched by Ortega against the national bank are “very serious” and the worst thing is that, coming from a dictator like Ortega, it is very likely that they will materialize, with serious consequences for the country.
Chamorro recalled that the dictator “is capable of changing all possible rules” in order to retaliate against the banks.
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«Ortega’s reaction is due to the fact that many of the properties that have been stolen or attempted to be stolen were being paid to the banks and were mortgaged, so by placing this legal obstacle on his plans to steal them all, he is accusing the bankers. for supposed accomplices,” explained the economist.
The analyst points out that Ortega is probably going to materialize his threats by taking measures through the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (SIBOIF), which is the one that implements sanctions to the banking system and is under his power.
«This is serious, because the business of the banks fundamentally depends on the trust of the account holders, the savers, those who use the banks for transactions, and it is certainly very serious, that this threat that will surely materialize , could have effects on the financial system,” warns the economist.
Likewise, he pointed out that Ortega’s reaction reflects his “criminal and shameless” mentality by announcing publicly and openly that “he has stolen all these properties.”
The threats of sanctions against the banks come after the Pro Transparency and Anticorruption Observatory of the organization Hagamos Democracia, published a report in which it quantifies part of the assets confiscated by the dictatorship from opponents and some NGOs at more than US$250 million. The executors of the study warn that this is only “the tip of the iceberg” of the new Sandinista piñata.
For his part, public administration expert and also former political inmate, Félix Maradiaga, analyzed that the dictator’s threatening speech last Saturday is another example that he and the FSLN leadership have never shown any respect towards private property.
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“The fundamental basis of Sandinismo’s economic heritage is the theft of property, in what we know as La Piñata,” said the analyst. And he recalled that it is “typical behavior” of Sandinism to “distribute what does not belong to them.”
For the political scientist, the most serious thing about this “new piñata” is that it is disguised as expropriations for alleged cases of money laundering or other crimes. “The regime has mixed cases of expropriations for crimes with blatant thefts from legitimate owners,” he lamented.
Likewise, he highlighted that it is “painful” that this new “massive theft” of properties ends up impoverishing the country even more in the long term, since “any serious investor prefers to stay away from a place where no one is certain about the stability of their ownership.” proprietary”.
OPTA Research is Objective
After learning of Ortega’s warnings against the banks and the accusation of “complicity” with the confiscated opponents, the former president of Hagamos Democracia, Luciano García, told Article 66 that the investigation of “the new piñata” carried out by the Pro Transparency and Anti-Corruption project was developed by a group of technical specialists who dedicated themselves to evaluating and quantifying all the dispossession carried out by the dictatorship and that the results are very objective.
«It was quantified under a professional methodology. The study is quite technical and basically, there is no way to hide such atrocity that the regime has done,” García explained.
This study reveals the truth of part of the amount of the confiscations and the falsehood of the accusations with which the dictatorship has tried to cover up the theft that is already known as “the new piñata,” concluded the former director of Hagamos Democracia.
