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Nicaraguans Lose $62 Million in Assistance as Ortega Stands Firm in Defending Flawed Elections
June 18, 2009
by Jason MarczakEight months later, the consequences of last November’s municipal elections continue to reverberate throughout Nicaragua. Now the latest victim is not the legitimacy of the democratic process but Nicaraguan citizens. And the government of Nicaragua is to blame.
Last week, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)—a U.S. government entity established in 2004 that ties aid to good governance, economic freedom and investments in people—announced that it would cut $62 million in aid to Nicaragua. This money, suspended a few weeks after the municipal elections, was part of a five-year, $175 million agreement (or compact) that was signed with the Nicaraguan government in July 2005.
The reason? MCC assistance only goes to “governments who are governing justly,” and according to MCC Acting Chief Executive Officer Rodney Bent, Nicaragua has not shown “meaningful reforms or progress” in this area. The MCC had been looking for the government of President Daniel Ortega to address the voting irregularities that helped his Sandinista candidates win the mayorship of Managua, and the country’s second city, León. In Managua, Alexis Arguello defeated Eduardo Montealegre (Ortega’s challenger in the 2006 presidential election) amid accusations of voter identity fraud and suspicious polling station tallies. For the first time in 20 years, independent observers were barred from monitoring the election.
The international community has called on the government to find a Nicaraguan solution to the concerns about the election. Ortega’s response, according to Tim Rogers of the Christian Science Monitor, is to “thumb his nose at those who question his government,” leading Rodney Bent to bluntly state that “these guys stole the election.” Now with the aid cut off, the Sandinistas are blaming the opposition and civil society for being too vocal and forcing this type of response from the U.S. government. At the same time, the Budget Support Group—a collaboration among nine European countries and Canada—also suspended aid last year ($70 million) over electoral concerns and is now considering whether to follow the U.S. lead in canceling it altogether.
Ortega’s answer to all this is to go to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez for $50 million, adding to Chávez’ regional commitments at a time of fiscal troubles back home. And at a recent rally, Ortega denounced U.S. President Barack Obama for having “the same policies as President Reagan,” who had provided support to the Sandinista opposition in the early 1980s.
But politics aside, the real losers are those that would have benefited from the now-cancelled roads projects and the $15 million land-titling program. After all, MCC funds had helped to build a positive working relationship in the field. “On a technical level, the relationship with the government is excellent,” according to the MCC’s in-country general director, Juan Sebastian Chamorro. Others projects that are now underway will continue, such as successful agricultural assistance programs, but the real impact will come once the compact runs out and no more financial or technical assistance comes along.
With few strings attached or means for oversight one can only wonder where the $50 million dollars of Bolivarian largesse will go.
Perhaps, if the Europeans follow the U.S. lead, Ortega may understand that the people and democracy need to come before his party’s political ambitions. That would be a welcome sign for democracy in Nicaragua. We can only hope.
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Nicaragua does not need the U.S.
First and foremost, the money the U.S. and the European Union give to Nicaragua, does not go to Ortega, but to the people who live poverty. Now, Anonymous, you're saying the we are eating, going to school, and have medication because of the U.S., but you have to remember that we had all of this before the U.S. intervened in our country, started wars, and supported a dictator who killed his own people and took all the land for himself. The E.U. and the U.S. does not want to help Nicaragua with aid to reduce poverty, so we turn to those who do. Iran, Russia, Venezuela, have helped us in the past, and are helping us now. The riches countries on this planet stopped their aid, but i'll tell you what, Ortega wont suffer, but the people living below poverty. Ortega, being the person that he is has done more for the country than many other presidents, for example, created universal health care in a third world country, second poorest to Haiti in the W.Hemisphere, and education fees free, which allowed more than 100,000 kids to attend school. The U.S. acts imperialistic, and when it gets angry at another country, cuts friendships with them, not caring what happens to those who have no political blame, like a "CHILD". I know some members of the E.U. are providing aid, but I don't know which ones.
Nicaraguan Progress? US and Europe or Venezuela, Iran, Russia?
The new road from Leon to Playa Roca Beach Hotel in Las Penitas-Leon is nearing completion. City of Leon to the Pacific Ocean in minutes on a "state of the art" highway (prior "major" highway was pot-holed and easily flooded) I don't see any signs saying thank-you Russian people or Iranian's or Cuban's or Venezuelan's for this or for much of anything in this, the 2nd poorist nation in the Western Hemisphere (Haiti #1). I don't see any hotels, restaurants, retail stores depending on these countries tourists pouring millions of dollars into their job generating business's. How many jobs have been created from their countries citizenry who have plowed their life savings into Nicaragua's industries to help the economy grow? Our small fishing community of Las Penitas has only a handful of foreigner's who employ locals in the tourist industry. They hail from the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the UK, that's it! North America and Europe. Who gives more aid to poor countries around the world and specifically Nicaragua and Central America? North America and Europe. Hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars generated from their economies and given to OTHERS so their economies can grow and benefit. In exchange for what? AGREED guarantee's that the money will be spent in their best interests WITH accountability for which the money was GIVEN for in the first place. In this "micro-world" Playa Roca Beach Hotel and Playa Roca Learning and Language Center exists solely because of monies earned in the United States and invested in Las Penitas-Leon, Nicaragua. We, a married couple, employ more Nicaraguan's than all the other countries combined from the countries of Venequela, Iran, Cuba, Russia, etc. In fact, if we employed only ONE person it would also be more than ALL the other COUNTRIES combined! In a short synopsis, the U.S. and E.U. gives the greatest amount of foreign aid to Nicaragua, spends the most money inside the country and imports the most products and services than the rest of the world combined and by a large percentage. And who gets the "bad" press and who gets the alcolades? That's right, the "hands" that feeds the "mouth" of Ortega's governmental posture gets the "blame" for the woe's THEY'VE paid to alliviate. To get a better perspective on this International debate. What would the world, much less Nicaragua look like without North America and Europe's aid and investment; Infrastructure, poverty, agriculture, education, human rights, civil rights, employment, industry, exports/imports, etc.? Imagine?? Take it ALL away. My biased opinion would be that the world's situation would not be very good. Double, triple the rest of the world's investments, would it even come close to equalling what was lost with the void? My biased opinion is "NOT EVEN CLOSE"! My bias is not based on a "righteous" view that everything the U.S. or Europe does is "Devine", and far from it. We are all "human", we all make mistakes, some are glaring and some more subtle but mistakes none the less. But the basic and fundemental governmental policies of these nations allow for "Freedom's" for the individual and societies never known in the history of Mankind, and which generates enough "surplus" of goods and services and "monies" to benefit those societies that don't even break even. The generosity of the "peoples" of these nations are what generate the aid that flows FROM them TO others not as fortunate. It is not nation to nation, it is from human's that have to humans that don't. The "have" human's choose the governments that create the nations that DO the GIVING, again an extention of the "freedom" to choose what their collective desires are, or the basic basis of a democratic society. Not ALL decisions are right, just a collection of agreements the majority of the society decides. The decisions are not 100% approved by all, just the majority, right or wrong. By leading the World, much less the "Free World", in over all generation of "wealth" and the "giving" it away, their system of government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people seems to work better than any other alternative ever designed by Mankind FOR Mankind.
Nicaragua is the second
Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, after Haiti and a country which the United States has a history of engagement. Due to Nicaragua's participation in ALBA and connection with Chavez, wouldn't it be a golden opportunity for the US to try to engage the people of Nicaragua and not necessarily the Ortega government? As much as the US wants to punish Ortega, empowering the people of Nicaragua, and giving them ownership over their country(especially in the area of land titles) would be in my opinion a better way to combat Ortega's rhetoric. If we speak of democratization, we need to talk about stakeholders and how to provide them with the tools empower them to decide and make THEIR government accountable, this to me should be the goal of such aid. However, I do acknowledge that in practice aid such as this comes with strings attached by the donors (in this case the US gov), that sometimes puts those it is trying to help in the crossfire.