Dictator Daniel Ortega continues to eliminate government agencies and merge them with other institutions. This time it was the turn of the Secretariat of Climate Change of the Presidency, which was eliminated and its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Marena), where Javier Gutiérrez Ramírez was appointed as Vice Minister for Climate Change, who had already been fired from that position once.
By Presidential Decree 12-2024, published in La Gaceta, official journal number 164, this Wednesday, September 4, dictator Ortega orders the “transfer of functions of the Secretariat of Climate Change of the Presidency of the Republic to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.”
Article 1 of the decree establishes that “the functions and powers of the Secretariat for Climate Change of the Presidency of the Republic will be assumed by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 217, General Law of the Environment and Natural Resources.”
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For this reason, the dictator’s order states, Marena is the “seamless successor” of the Secretariat of Climate Change, such that “in the entire Nicaraguan legal system where the Secretariat of Climate Change of the Presidency of the Republic is read, from now on it should read, Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources.”
In the same Decree, the dictator orders the repeal of all the functions established in article two of Presidential Decree No. 06-2021 by which said Secretariat was created.
The now-defunct presidential body that was responsible for dealing with everything related to Climate Change had the functions of “supporting, together with the economic sectors, the implementation of policies on climate change; supporting the management of financial resources and technical cooperation for climate investments; representing the country in international and regional negotiations on climate change and reporting to the Presidency on progress in the implementation of climate policies.”
In addition, it was to monitor and support the “implementation of Nicaragua’s commitments to international and specialized organizations on climate change.”
Ortega was not very happy with the performance of that Secretariat because recently the Green Climate Fund (GCF) cancelled the “Financed Activity Agreement” (FP 146) with the project «Bio-CLIMA: Integrated climate action to reduce deforestation and strengthen resilience in the BOSAWAS and Río San Juan Biosphere Reserves», a project managed by the regime through the now defunct Secretariat. The dictatorship stopped receiving more than 116 million dollars from that fund.
Secretary thrown out and picked up
In the same Official Gazette, Presidential Agreement 158-2024 was published, appointing Javier Antonio Gutiérrez Ramírez as “Deputy Minister for Climate Change of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources.”
Gutiérrez Ramírez served in that position until April of this year, when he was dismissed as punishment for the cancellation of the Bio-Clima project, of the Green Fund, however he had already been reinstated in that same position on August 12, through presidential agreement 147-2024.
Therefore, this new appointment, in the same position with another presidential agreement, would be superfluous. Before the Secretary, Ortega had already ordered the disappearance and transfer of functions to other institutions, of the Nicaraguan Institute for Municipal Development (Inifom) and the Emergency Social Investment Fund (Fise).
