Caribbean & Central America - March 2012 (ISSN 1741-4458)

New Central Bank (BCN) president: On 14 February Ortega confirmed that Finance Minister Alberto Guevara Obregón would replace Antenor Rosales as BCN President after five years in the job. While Rosales stepped down for “health reasons”, his departure was later attributed to his resistance to Ortega’s announcement that Nicaragua would assign US$17m (or 1%) of its international reserves to help finance the start-up regional bank proposed by the Venezuela-led regional initiative, Alba, of his close ally, President Hugo Chávez. Rosales reportedly refused, insistent that only the BCN could authorise the use of reserves which were not to be used at the “whim” of just anyone. His departure met with unease from the private sector; despite his FSLN roots, (having previously served as a colonel in the Sandinista army), Rosales was considered key to the government’s successful management of the economy (which grew by 4.7% in 2011, second only to Panama in the region) and Nicaragua’s continued good relations with the IMF, with which plans to seek a new agreement have been announced. Guevara, a loyal Ortega ally who was a lieutenant and part of the state security apparatus (DGSE) under the first FSLN government, has been replaced by his deputy, Iván Acosta.