The dictators Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, with their repressive and corrupt policies, are the only ones responsible for the fact that the United States Government is calling on its businessmen and the rest of the world not to invest in Nicaragua, which could translate, in the near future, into a severe crisis that will further affect the Nicaraguan people.
The U.S. State Department published its report on the investment climate in Nicaragua on July 17, warning investors in the country to be “extremely cautious” about investing in the Central American nation given the hostile policies and legal uncertainty, violations of property laws, and human rights violations under the Ortega-Murillo regime.
This call “already has, and will have, economic repercussions of great importance for the country’s economy,” warns the economist and opposition leader in exile Juan Sebastián Chamorro, especially because it is a warning that comes from a country that is currently Nicaragua’s main trading partner.
Chamorro, who for many years directed the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUNIDES), recalled that the United States absorbs 55% of Nicaragua’s exports, and is also the main supplier of fuel to power the country’s economy, so the warnings to foreign investors made by the U.S. Government are taken into account by businessmen, corporations and transnationals that may explore the possibility of investing in Nicaragua.
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These negative warnings, Chamorro points out, “will be there, present on the U.S. Government’s website and any new investor who wants to learn about Nicaragua will find this communication,” which will therefore have a disincentive effect on new and existing investments.
Without the rule of law, there is no environment for investment
The economist maintains that the US report is conclusive and constitutes a very clear sign that in Nicaragua “there is no rule of law and it is very difficult to defend the rights of investors who are already established” in the country.
One of the issues that causes the greatest concern among new investors and those already in the country, says the analyst, is the issue of private property.
“The report details with many current elements what has happened in Nicaragua in recent years, regarding the violation of property rights, which is a fundamental element of foreign private investment and investment in all its senses,” he warns.
He also argues that something that may be causing panic among business owners is the fact that it is no longer possible to determine whether a property title is clean, because the public property registry “is no longer a public registry” but was taken from the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) to be subordinated to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), an agency that has been used by the regime to carry out hundreds of confiscations against opponents and organizations in society.
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Another issue of great concern, according to Chamorro, is land invasions and the high level of widespread corruption at all levels of the regime, “which clearly show a negative environment for investments.”
These levels of corruption facilitate and encourage violations of international trade agreements, which, even though there are clauses for resolving problems and for filing lawsuits, are not widely used for fear of reprisals.
For the economic expert, investors would be seeing Nicaragua as a lawless territory, with an “extremely hostile” business environment and that will have serious repercussions on Nicaragua’s future economic growth because billions of dollars in investment will stop arriving in the country.
The excesses of the regime, says Chamorro, “will translate into less economic growth, less job creation, less exports, less opportunities for Nicaraguan workers who in the end are the ones who end up paying the price for the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship.”
“The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is the cause and sole party responsible, through its absurd policies of repression and fiscal harassment, for generating less growth and with it more poverty, more unemployment and more despair in the country,” concluded the economic analyst.
