Weekly Report - 30 June 2022 (WR-22-26)

Costa Rica’s new president Rodrigo Chaves has received a letter from eight of his predecessors asking him not to back Nicaragua’s Werner Vargas, the preferred choice of the Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega, to serve as the secretary general of the Central American Integration System (Sica), a post vacant for over a year. The issue is proving a foreign policy test for Chaves and his foreign minister André Tinoco who, ahead of taking office [WR-22-17], suggested the new government would be open to re-establishing relations with Nicaragua, which remains isolated diplomatically due to international concerns over the deteriorating human rights and democracy situation there.