A group of Nicaraguan opponents, exiled in Costa Rica, held a protest this Wednesday morning outside the headquarters of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BECI), in San José, to demand the cessation of financing to the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
The concentration was held within the framework of the 63rd CABEI Assembly of Governors, which will take place on May 12, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In addition, it is required that the current president of the banking entity not be re-elected, Dante Mosi, accused of being an accomplice of the Nicaraguan dictatorship.
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In the letter that the members of various civil society organizations in exile read, and which was later delivered to the CABEI representatives in Costa Rica, they recalled that in recent years, CABEI has been the main source of loans for the Nicaragua, “representing the credits granted to this 20% of the total portfolio of the Bank, being the absolute majority of the loans that the Ortega dictatorship receives globally.”
They also emphasized that “indiscriminate financing” has been carried out in the context of the sociopolitical crisis that Nicaragua has been experiencing since 2018, and “in which human rights organizations, such as the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) of the Inter-American Commission Human Rights (IACHR), and the United Nations Group of Experts on Human Rights, have concluded that crimes against humanity have been committed in Nicaragua, and at least 355 people have been murdered at the hands of state agents.”
“In the last three months, the regime, which CABEI finances, has arbitrarily exiled and canceled the nationality of at least 220 political prisoners and denationalized and confiscated their patrimonial assets, as well as deprived of all their citizenship rights to another 94 people, openly transgressing the international commitments acquired by the State, assuming an international responsibility that CABEI cannot ignore and continue to be subsumed to supposed technical requirements”, they stressed.
They demand the non-reelection of Mossi
As for Dante Mossi, who intends to be re-elected to CABEI’s Presidency, the opponents pointed out that “the partners have the obligation, for the Bank’s own financial health, to oppose the re-election of Mr. Mossi and consequently the capitalization of the CABEI».
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If Mossi is re-elected, the complainants warn, “a greater corporate and institutional responsibility would be acquired in the face of what is happening in Nicaragua, a country where human rights have been annulled.”
for his partJuan Diego Barberena, member of the Political Council of the opposition Blue and White National Unity, stated that the responsibility of Dante Mossi for his “fix” to the Ortega regime is evident.
CABEI is the main “sponsor” of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. In recent years, the financing of this regional entity went from representing 21.39% of the Public Investment Program (PIP) in 2017 to 39.14% in 2022. In total, they have disbursed 3.5 billion dollars in five years for Nicaragua.
According to the agreements, these funds will be used in infrastructure projects, but the lack of transparency of the dictatorship casts doubt on the implementation of this money.
On March 17, the Foreign Relations committees of the United States Senate and Congress have requested the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica to stop the financing that CABEI grants to the Nicaraguan regime of Daniel Ortega, for For his part, Dante Mossi continues to defend the loans to Nicaragua, affirming that they have been executed with transparency
