The Center for Transdisciplinary Studies of Central America (Cetcam) concluded that the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, cannot offer lasting solutions to the sociopolitical crisis that the country has been going through since 2018, despite the fact that the Nicaraguan economy has recovered in the last two years. , according to an analysis released this Monday by that think tank.
“When measuring the economic situation (of Nicaragua) by its impact on the living conditions of the people, the conclusion is that the management of the Ortega regime is failing miserablycannot offer lasting solutions to the social crisis and the difficult living conditions that affect the majority of Nicaraguans,” argued the Cetcam, a think tank made up of Central American researchers from different disciplines, in a report.
For Cetcam, “one of the weakest flanks” of the Ortega government “is the economy, since even when there is a positive performance of the economic indicators, this contrasts drastically with a situation of greater poverty, unemployment and hopelessness of the population”.
In this sense, the center gave as an example “migration or, rather, forced displacement” of Nicaraguans, which, it said, “has become the clearest indicator of uncertainty and the deterioration of living conditions of the population”.
“The economic achievements that the dictatorship proclaims are nothing more than a cruel mirage, so that the perspective for 2023 is that these conditions will be maintained for Nicaragua and it is expected that the flow of migration will persist”, valued Cetcam.
“Unpublished exodus” of Nicaraguans
Two weeks ago, the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) warned about an “unprecedented exodus” of Nicaraguans as a result of the sociopolitical crisis that Nicaragua has been experiencing since April 2018.
“In 2022 there was an unprecedented exodus in Nicaragua,” noted Race and Equality in a report sent to the Efe agency.
At least 328,443 citizens left Nicaragua in 2022, a figure that exceeds the 161,269 who left in 2021, “which had also set a record in Nicaragua’s migration history,” according to that international NGO that works with counterparts and local activists in Latin America.
Race and Equality also cited a publication of CONFIDENTIAL in which it is argued that this massive migration is “the main and most visible symptom of the latent sociopolitical and human rights crisis” that the country has been experiencing for the past 57 months, “since a total of 604,485 people have left Nicaragua since 2018, the year in which the crisis began”.
Those 604,485 Nicaraguans represent 9.1% of the total population of Nicaragua, estimated at 6.6 million inhabitants.
Meanwhile, the 328,443 Nicaraguans who left their country last year represent 4.9% of the Nicaraguan population.
Record in remittances
Nicaragua received a new record of 2.8 million dollars in remittances between January and November 2022, 49.4% more than in the same period of 2021, according to data from the Central Bank of Nicaragua.
The 2,887.8 million dollars received as family remittances as of last November represent 20.6% of Nicaragua’s gross domestic product (GDP) (14,013.7 million dollars) in 2021.
In 2022, the Government foresees a growth of between 3.5% to 4.5% of its economy, and between 3% to 4% in 2023.
The Nicaraguan economy contracted by an average of 3% per year in the 2018-2020 period.
