On Thursday, October 21, the president and vice president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep), Michael Healy and Álvaro Vargas, respectively, were summoned by the Prosecutor’s Office, and arrested shortly after, which unleashed an extensive and intense chain of statements. condemnation, issued by business chambers across the continent.
The former president of the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), Lucy Valenti, was also summoned by the Prosecutor’s Office in those days, and decided to take shelter to avoid possible arbitrary detention, confirmed to CONFIDENTIAL an industry source, who asked to remain anonymous.
Almost a week later, on October 27, the Chamber reported through a brief statement that Valenti had submitted his resignation, and that, based on his current statutes, Vice President Carlos W. Schütze assumed the presidency for the rest of the period 2020 – 2022.
For more than a decade, Valenti was the face of that union in the country, serving as Canatur’s presidency between 2006 and 2011 (three consecutive terms of two years each), and from 2016 to 2021.
The sources who spoke to CONFIDENTIAL They are not sure of the reasons why Valenti resigned, but everyone assumes that she thought that if the regime had not been shy about arresting Vargas and Healy without cause, it would not have it to lock her up, who has openly criticized them.
She left so they wouldn’t get her
“I have no idea why he resigned,” said the president of the Canatur Chapter in San Juan del Sur, Eduardo Holmann. “I contacted her when she resigned, to express my solidarity, but I did not ask her why she was resigning. I imagine it was because they were following her. When they grabbed Álvaro and Mike, they said they were looking for her too, ”he added.
Arturo Cano, coordinator of the presidents of chapters of the Chamber, said that in general, the union had decided not to refer to the resignation of Valenti, considering that everything was very recent, and it seems prudent to let the days go by.
An expert on tourism issues who met the former president, supported Holmann’s thesis, saying that “I imagine the same thing as everyone: that she thought ‘if they were thrown prisoner, they can come for me’, and more so when Grigsby said that she supplied the Rivas roadblocks, so I suppose she decided to leave before they took action against her ”.
“I lost contact with her last Thursday when Healy and Vargas were captured. She told me that she was fine, until I saw that she had resigned, but she did not tell me anything at all, “said the expert.
“Lucy always had good ideas, such as the International Tourism Fair, or the Güegüense National Award for Tourism Excellence, which was a tool for the businessman to evaluate his development on a day-to-day basis, in order to seek certification. Many of those who won it later obtained the Rainforest Alliance, which is a quality seal recognized in the United States, ”he explained.
“She has an incredible capacity for interpersonal and international relations,” he added.
For Holmann, the union lost with the resignation of Valenti, because “she is a tireless and cohesive leader, who did not take sides for anyone. It is responsible for the existence of territorial chapters of Canatur. He has been consistent with what he thinks, always defending business interests ”.
He points out that under his leadership, the Chamber never got involved in politics, because “in the chapters there is everything: Sandinistas and non-Sandinistas, but we are all aware of the problems that overwhelm the union, and this is what we have tried to defend, without success, because neither the Government nor the Cosep structures have listened to us ”.
In the future, Cano understands that “we all have to continue fighting for tourism in Nicaragua. We are at a time when this has just happened, so it is difficult to define what is going to happen ”.
