The Foreign Relations committees of the United States Senate and Congress have asked the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica to stop the financing that the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) grants to the Nicaraguan regime of Daniel Ortega.
The president of CABEI, Dante Mossi, explained that the bank’s directors, who represent the member countries, are the ones who approve or reject the loans for the execution of the various projects that Nicaragua requests from the international national entity.
The senators and congressmen point out that “transparency and scrutiny of the bank’s loans to the Government of Nicaragua must be increased.”
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“Given the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Ortega-Murillo regime, we urge your country to take advantage of its leadership as a founding member of CABEI to guarantee that the bank’s loans do not perpetuate the consolidation of the Nicaraguan dictatorship,” the letter sent states. to the presidents of Central America.
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.
The US politicians explain that earlier this month a United Nations investigation team concluded that the Ortega-Murillo regime was committing widespread abuses against the Nicaraguan people that amounted to crimes against humanity.
“… when describing the atrocities that occur in Nicaragua, a UN investigator compared the systematic campaign of extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detention and political persecution of Daniel Ortega with the crimes committed by the Nazi regime in Germany”, they highlight.
“On March 10, Pope Francis similarly compared the brutality of the Ortega-Murillo regime to that of the Hitler dictatorship.” These shocking characterizations of the situation in Nicaragua underscore the urgency of ending a ‘business as usual’ approach with the Ortega-Murillo regime,” they add.
Furthermore, they encourage Central American presidents to use their voice and vote to cut off funding for their criminal regime.
“Failing to take such steps to address lending to a government accused by the United Nations of crimes against humanity detracts from CABEI’s important development work in their countries and risks undermining the bank’s international reputation,” they conclude.
