Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega once again praised what he called “Hugo Chavez’s help,” referring to the shipment of oil and its derivatives to Nicaragua from Venezuela, which stopped working more than 8 years ago, but which left the country with a multimillion-dollar debt that sooner or later Nicaraguans will have to pay.
During his speech on Thursday, September 12, at the ceremony to welcome the “torch of independence,” dictator Ortega, after recounting in his own way the process of independence in Central America, returned to his usual attacks on developed countries, which he calls “empires,” to accuse them of not wanting the unity of the countries in the region.
On this subject, he recalled the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, whom he applauded because, according to the Nicaraguan tyrant, his now deceased counterpart did want the unity of Latin American countries and that is why he helped them with energy agreements such as the one he established with Nicaragua, which keeps the country in a gigantic mess.
Private debt to be paid by the State
According to official data from the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN), Venezuela sent more than US$3.654 billion to Daniel Ortega’s regime between 2007 and 2016, thanks to a “generous” agreement reached by the Venezuelan and Nicaraguan leaders.
The dictators put this agreement beyond all control by imposing that the debt be managed as “private”, for which they created a network of public and private companies, which in the case of Nicaragua were Albanisa-Petronic, which were never audited.
Related news: Venezuela and oil: golden age, corruption, collapse and sanctions
The Venezuelan oil agreement consisted of the South American country supplying approximately 30 thousand barrels of oil (or derivatives) daily to Nicaragua, at preferential prices, and payment was to be made in cash or in kind for the first 50% and the remaining 50% over a period of 25 years at an interest rate of 2%.
A debt that sooner or later the State of Nicaragua will have to pay, but which was contracted and managed privately by Alba de Nicaragua, (Albanisa), associated with the state entity Petronic, which has been accused of corruption and has suffered sanctions from the United States.
Independent analysts estimate that approximately $5 billion in oil and oil derivatives arrived in Nicaragua. From this bonanza, managed with absolute discretion by Ortega, his children ended up owning several television channels and radio stations, as well as advertising agencies and security companies.
Ortega brought up “Venezuelan aid” when he said that Chavez was seeking Latin American unity.
The tyrant recalled that when he returned to power in 2007, there were blackouts in Nicaragua, “there was no power and when he (Chávez) found out that we had no power, some power plants that they were bringing, importing for Venezuela, he said: Let them come to Nicaragua now! And the power plants came to Nicaragua, and there the blackouts that were a daily occurrence in previous years began to disappear,” without clarifying that the economic crisis that the country was experiencing had been inherited by the first Sandinista dictatorship that he himself presided over and that it was he himself who boycotted the democratic governments, precisely so that they could not provide basic services to Nicaraguans and thus foster discontent among the people.
Related news: The metamorphosis of the oil business in Nicaragua
“He (Hugo Chavez) did not come here to take anything from us, he helped us with fuel, with power plants, with oil. In other words, the relations that Venezuela developed with these peoples, he looked at the poorest peoples of the region, and he saw Central America, and he saw the Caribbean, and he went to these peoples to integrate them into the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America,” insisted Ortega, again without mentioning the multi-million dollar oil debt with Venezuela.
Dictator advocates for Central American unity while being rejected by SICA
Ortega used his speech on Central American independence to advocate for regional unity around the Central American Integration System (SICA), an organization in which he has not achieved consensus to accept his proposals for executive secretary, a position that falls to Nicaragua.
«With the passage of time, as if coming to our senses, we managed to integrate the Central American States into a System that we know as SICA, the Central American Integration System, which is, let’s say, an important step that will have to go in the direction, until we become once again a single Central American Nation, that we are the United Republics of Central America, and we will be stronger, more powerful, to fight against Poverty, against Misery, for Sovereignty… We will be more Powerful!, said the tyrant.
The Managua regime has been trying for months to have one of the three candidates proposed for SICA general secretary accepted, mainly its political operator in international relations, Valdrack Jaentschke, without obtaining the necessary support, mainly from Guatemala and Costa Rica.
Jaentschke was recently appointed as Nicaragua’s foreign minister, so the Managua regime is going to use another candidate from among its political operators, but it is almost impossible for him to be elected and in the next period the general secretary position will go to Honduras, which the Managua regime now has as an ally.
