Caribbean & Central America - March 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The octogenarian Gadea is the only 'new' face in the presidential race, but the novelty in the November 2011 contest is the position of the influential business lobby, Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada (Cosep). It publicly backed Montealegre in 2006, but the Cosep now insists that it is not supporting any of the candidates. At the same time, the local media points out that, despite Ortega's radical leftist rhetoric, his ties with the Cosep are stronger than ever, amid booming export and foreign investment receipts. His government announced record exports of US$1.92bn in 2010, a 32% increase on 2009 and US$500m in foreign direct investment last year, a figure it forecasts will double again in 2011. Ortega has also honored his pledge not to raise taxes further since the last December 2009 reform. This reform, which aimed to increase the tax take by an additional 0.7% of GDP itself signified a concession to the Cosep, falling short of the 1.5% increase initially proposed by Ortega.

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