LatinNews Daily - 05 November 2018

Nicaragua: On 29 October, the outgoing US ambassador to Nicaragua, Laura Dogu, used a farewell speech before the Cámara de Comercio Americana en Nicaragua (Amcham) to launch a scathing attack on Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega. Dogu, who will be replaced by Kevin Sullivan, warned that the international community could impose harsher economic sanctions in response to Ortega’s lack of commitment to negotiating an end to ongoing civil unrest stemming from the anti-government protests and that has resulted in hundreds of deaths. The ambassador predicted that US legislators would make a decision on the Nicaragua Investment Conditionality Act (Nica Act), which is currently before the US Congress, following the 6 November US mid-term legislative election. Approval of the Nica Act could lead to the withholding of as much as US$300m in aide funding to Nicaragua until there are free and fair elections in the country. Dogu pointed out that US legislators have already sanctioned three Nicaraguan government officials under the Magnitsky Act, which allows the US to sanction foreign government officials guilty of human rights violations, and that a dozen more have had their travel visas to the US revoked, while increasing international pressure could also jeopardise Nicaragua’s access to financial markets, which provided 24% of the state budget in 2017. In a wide-ranging speech, Dogu also criticised the use of state-run universities as propaganda tools and healthcare as a weapon against protesters, while calling for the end of the caudillo model in favour of a fairer and more transparent system in which every Nicaraguan has the same opportunities.

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