The United States analyzes “conclusively” to exclude Nicaragua from the Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA, in response to a decree by President Daniel Ortega that authorizes the entry into his country of foreign troops, including Russian troops currently invading Ukraine.
The announcement was made on Friday by the president’s main adviser Joe Bien for hemispheric security matters, Juan González, during an interview given to the voice of america in the framework of Summit of the Americas, held in Los Angeles, California.
González said that, although Washington knows that the entry of troops is something that Nicaragua carries out periodically and routinely, “that does not mean that it is not worrying.”
“Now we are analyzing their presence in CAFTA quite forcefully given what they are doing,” González said. He also indicated that “there is a consensus that Nicaragua is going in a direction that worries everyone in the hemisphere.”
He stressed that the United States has tried several times to “shake hands” with the Ortega administration “and have a dialogue with them” without any response from the Sandinista president.
“It does not matter what political spectrum the governments are on because, where one puts all the presidential candidates in jail in order to win an election, that is a signal and a very dangerous precedent,” said González, referring to the seven opponents who tried to dispute Ortega’s power in the 2021 elections and that they were arrested and prosecuted “in anomalous processes.”
However, he indicated that they were “going to exhaust every opportunity to have a dialogue that leads to the freedom of political prisoners in the country and a policy that restores democratic order.”
“Otherwise, we are going to increase the pressure, but we are going to do it in coordination with the countries of the region,” he concluded.
How easy or not the exclusion would be?
Previously, a group of Democratic and Republican congressmen requested the exclusion of Managua from the free trade agreement, however, González acknowledges that although “it is very difficult” to carry out this measure, “we have broad national security authorities to impose restrictions on any country for issues” precisely security.
“Here the issue of Nicaragua, the invitation of external armies, especially one that has invaded another country, that is what should concern everyone,” González stressed.
The exclusion of Nicaragua from the Treaty would hit thethe country’s fragile economydirectly impacting exports, employment and economic activity already in crisis due to the pandemic and the sociopolitical crisis that began in 2018according to experts.
A Nicaraguan economist said, on condition of anonymity for security reasons, that Managua’s exit from this trade agreement would cause a sharp drop of 7.3% in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but he warns that the impact would be concentrated mainly between the exporters.
The Agreement —which entered into force in Managua in April 2006— stimulates the economy and has managed to substantially increase exports to the United States, according to official data.
And it is that the United States is one of the main destinations of imports from Nicaragua, according to data from the Central Bank. In 2020, Nicaragua exported goods to the United States for an amount of 3,381.2 million dollars.
Officialism minimizes the scope of the arrival of troops
The government of President Daniel Ortega authorized on Tuesday the exchange of ships, aircraft and foreign military personnel for “mutually beneficial purposes of exchange and humanitarian assistance”.
The decree authorizes, among other points, the entry of personnel and weapons of the Russian Armed Forces, which is at war with Ukraine after invading that country in February.
The official deputy Wilfredo Navarro minimized the facts and affirmed by telephone to the VOA that this is something “that occurs in all Latin American countries.” “That in Nicaragua is not new. Members of the armies of Central America, Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico, Russia and the United States come here,” Navarro justified.
He added that “it has nothing to do with establishing military bases.” “Those are crazy. The desire for protagonism makes them say anything outrageous. It is a program that is made for six months and it is what is approved so as not to be approving it every month”.
However, at a time when Russian forces are invading Ukraine, analysts maintain that Ortega’s measure “is serious and dangerous.”
“This miscalculation of the dictatorship puts Nicaragua as a pawn, in a geopolitical conflict between two great powers instead of thinking about peace, security and prosperity for our long-suffering people,” wrote former diplomat Arturo Cruz on his Twitter account.
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