The Inter-American Dialogue confirmed that this Thursday, March 16, at 7:15 in the morning, Central American time, the debate between Manuel Orozco and Ryan Berg will take place with the executive president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), Dante Mossi, to talk about the financial support that the Bank provides to Nicaragua, while the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega intensifies its attacks and aggressions against the citizenry.
Financing for the Ortega dictatorship represents 26% of all CABEI loans to governments in the region, while in Nicaragua democratic governance indices deteriorate, human rights are disrespected and there is a lack of transparency.
The banker alleges that the loans have technical support, but he has also exposed his political bias when defending Ortega, declaring that in Nicaragua there was an unfair sanctions regime in reference to the sanctions of the United States, Canada, Switzerland, England and the Union. Union against the high officials of the regime.
On February 20, the director of the Migration, Remittances and Development Program of the Inter-American Dialogue, Manuel Orozco, invited Mossi to a public debate to discuss CABEI’s financing for Nicaragua, considering that “it is a sign of complete complicity with a dictatorship that represses, kills, exiles, imprisons”, also inviting Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Mossi agreed almost immediately.
For this Thursday’s debate, which will be moderated by CNN en Español’s business presenter, Gabriela Frías, it is pointed out that Nicaragua “has increased its dependence on loans since 2018 in the midst of a political and economic crisis. How has CABEI provided financial support to Nicaragua during this period? Are the lending policies consistent with the Bank’s principles? What explains Nicaragua’s growing dependence on CABEI?” asks El Diálogo Interamericano, which will be the host.
Colleagues doubt Dante can ‘win’
The decision to participate in the debate generated at least three types of reactions within the entity, according to the statements of two former representatives of Bank partner countries (one regional, and another extra-regional) who agreed to speak with CONFIDENTIALon condition that their names remain anonymous.
“Among his allies it was considered a bad idea,” said the regional representative. “To the rest, it was a hasty decision, but it is your prerogative to participate in the debate. Finally, the Board of Directors preferred to be very respectful of that decision, and not pronounce on it, ”he explained.
For his part, the former extra-regional representative reported that “it is bad for the Bank, because it is thought that it will not be able to sustain the arguments on an issue that is already lost. There are directors who have warned him that it is a lost discussion, and that why is he going to get involved, that he is the director, the face of the Bank”.
Having reached this debate “is one of the symptoms of the communication issue, and of Mossi’s often aggressive verbal incontinence, and represents a reputational risk for the Bank,” he commented.
The former regional representative shared that within CABEI it is said that they do not know how Mossi is going to come out, “In any case, his main defense is that he is a third-line operator, who only complies with the decisions of the governors and directors,” argument.
The former official recalled the letter signed by nine directors at the end of 2021, where they expressed their concern about the Bank’s situation in terms of financial returns, operating results, portfolio risk, and where they asked for an updated ‘x-ray’ of the Bank.
“Dante must be measured by the results of the current financial indices, compared to those that CABEI had when he received it in November 2018,” he added with the certainty that “he does not pass that banker’s evaluation.”
Whether Mossi receives a ‘carte blanche’ to carry out the Bank’s capitalization process -which the Governors rejected at the meeting in Mérida, Yucatán (Mexico)- will depend on the results of this evaluation- because “otherwise, it will be throwing money in a broken basket, and it will leave the Bank in a bad situation in the future”, he considered.
For now, even in the face of this new request to increase the Bank’s capitalization, Mossi will have to defend why he has given so much money to Nicaragua without having sufficient and appropriate supervision.