SIGN UP FOR OUR The background to the proposed NICA legislation, which is pending review, starts during the 2008 Nicaraguan municipal elections when the MCC reported on a pattern of “decline in political rights and civil liberties in Nicaragua.”
Based on this, the MCC terminated the agreement in 2009, and reduced the amount of MCC funds to Nicaragua by $61,500,000, which led to an end to the program in 2011.
In 2009, “Ortega circumvented the country’s legislature and went to the Supreme Court, which he controls, to secure a ruling saying existing constitutional controls on presidential term limits were inapplicable,” according to the bill’s background information.
From fiscal year 2012 until present, the U.S. Department of State said that Nicaragua has failed to meet international fiscal transparency standards.
On January 25, 2012, a press statement from then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “As noted by international observers and Nicaraguan civil society groups, Nicaragua’s recent elections were not conducted in a transparent and impartial manner, and the entire electoral process was marred by significant irregularities. The elections marked a setback to democracy in Nicaragua and undermined the ability of Nicaraguans to hold their government accountable.”.
The U.S. Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 said that,”Election observers noted serious flaws during the 2012 municipal elections and March 2014 regional elections.”
The same 2015 report stated: “Additional significant human rights abuses included considerably biased policies to promote single-party dominance; arbitrary police arrest and detention of suspects, including abuse during detention; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions with arbitrary and lengthy pretrial detention; discrimination against ethnic minorities and indigenous persons and communities.”.
In February 2016, the Ortega regime detained and expelled Freedom House’s Latin America Director, Dr. Carlos Ponce, from Nicaragua. Freedom House is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) U.S. Government funded non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941. Wendell Willkie and Eleanor Roosevelt served as its first honorary chairpersons, according to Wikipedia.
The lead up to last year’s Nicaraguan presidential elections included several moves to exclude members of the opposition Citizen Action Party and the Independent Liberal Party, including removing them from their legislative posts in June and July. Ortega also barred all international election observers from the country.
Then in June 2016, President Ortega expelled three U.S. government officials (two U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents , and one professor from the National Defense University) from Nicaragua.
On November 7, the U.S. Department of State issued a press release stating: “The United States is deeply concerned by the flawed presidential and legislative electoral process in Nicaragua, which precluded the possibility of a free and fair election on November 6. In advance of the elections, the Nicaraguan government sidelined opposition candidates for president, limited domestic observation at the polls and access to voting credentials, and took other actions to deny democratic space in the process. The decision by the Nicaraguan government not to invite independent international electoral observers further degraded the legitimacy of the election.”
In November and December of 2016, the Board of Executive Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank postponed consideration of a policy-based loan of US$65 million to the Government of Nicaragua citing similar concerns.
And in February 2017, the European Parliament issued a resolution on the situation of human rights and democracy in Nicaragua and expressed concern of the “deteriorating human rights situation in Nicaragua, and deplores the attacks and acts of harassment to which human rights organizations and their members and independent journalists have been subjected by individuals, political forces and bodies linked to the State.”
If passed, the NICA bill would have U.S. representatives to international financial institutions over the next five years “to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to oppose any loan for the benefit of the Government of Nicaragua, other than to address basic human needs or promote democracy.”
The conditions would be lifted when and if Nicaragua demonstrates they are advancing in a number of areas including: “Holding free, fair, and transparent elections overseen by credible domestic and international electoral observers; promoting democracy, as well as an independent judicial system and electoral council; strengthening the rule of law; respecting the right to freedom of association and expression; combating corruption, including investigating and prosecuting government officials that are credibly alleged to be corrupt; and protecting the right of political opposition parties, journalists, trade unionists, human rights defenders, and other civil society activists to operate without interference,” according to the bill’s language.
The international financial institutions referred to include the International Monetary Fund, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Development Association, International Finance Corporation, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, African Development Bank, African Development Fund, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Bank for Economic Cooperation and Development in the Middle East and North Africa, and Inter-American Investment Corporation, many of which provide resources for Nicaragua’s struggling economy.
