Daniel Ortega, dictator of Nicaragua, ended the country’s private sector. On Tuesday the 7th, the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep) along with its 18 Associated Chambers were dissolved, after 32 years of activity in the region.
Nicaragua’s private sector has distanced itself from the Ortega government since 2018, when its top leaders repudiated human rights violations committed by police and paramilitaries. The leaders were arrested. The businessmen were exiled to the United States in February this year.
Former president of Nicaragua’s National Chamber of Tourism Lucy Valenti said Ortega’s decision is part of the “regime’s process of radicalization and Talibanization. The dictatorship feels cornered and takes desperate measures”.
In January 2022, the newspaper Divergent he said that Cosep was “ready to negotiate” with the government to release three political prisoners working in the employers’ union, which ended up not happening.
The news of the end of the Council worried businessmen and investors, who fear the confiscation that the cancellation of the legal personality of the Chambers may imply, as happened with the assets of more than 3,200 NGOs since 2018.
According to The countrythe bank accounts of the Nicaraguan Association of Automotive Vehicle Distributors (Andiva) have already been frozen, while other businessmen “run against time” to protect properties and assets.