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1 1 (April 26, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/govepof0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Con r sWonal Research Serv iribu inc I I tiv~ demic co 1914 Updated April 26, 2024 Nicaragua Nicaragua, a Central American country bordering Honduras and Costa Rica, is experiencing significant political repression under the authoritarian rule of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. The erosion of democracy under the Ortega-Murillo government has strained relations with the United States and raised congressional concerns. Congress may continue to monitor the Biden Administration's approach to Nicaragua and could consider legislative initiatives to guide U.S. policy. Nicaragua at a Glance Population: 6.74 million (2023, IMF) Area: 46,883 square miles, slightly smaller than Mississippi Gross Domestic Product (GDP)/Per Capita GDP: $17.4 billion/$2,600 (2023, current prices, IMF) Real GDP Growth: -1.8% (2020); 10.3% (2021); 3.8% (2022); 4.7% (2023, est.); 3.5% (2024, est.) (IMF) Key Trading Partners: Exports: United States (50.2%), Mexico (13.7%), El Salvador (6.5%); Imports: United States (24.8%), China (12.7%), Mexico (9.4%) (2023, TDM) Sources: International Monetary Fund (IMF); Trade Data Monitor (TDM). Poktkaa Situ ation Daniel Ortega first rose to prominence as a leader of the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which toppled the U.S.-aligned Somoza family dictatorship that ruled Nicaragua from 1936 to 1979. Ortega was elected president in 1984 but was defeated in 1990 after more than a decade of armed conflict between the FSLN government and U.S-backed Contra insurgents. From 1990 to 2001, Nicaragua held three relatively free and fair elections in which power changed hands peacefully between non- Sandinista presidents. Ortega returned to power in 2006, following elections that many observers also judged to be free and fair. In the ensuing years, Ortega's FSLN government increasingly manipulated democratic processes. Subsequent elections won by Ortega in 2011 and 2016 were widely judged to be seriously flawed. In 2021, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted a resolution asserting that Ortega's most recent election (his fifth overall and fourth consecutive term), had no democratic legitimacy, as all viable opposition candidates and parties were barred from participation. The Ortega government's social welfare programs initially helped improve Nicaraguans' standard of living and maintained a strong support base for the FSLN, which Ortega used to consolidate power. In April 2018, however, government-approved tax reforms that included tax increases and a reduction of social security benefits sparked mass protests. The Ortega administration's repressive response-which resulted in over 300 dead, thousands injured, and hundreds detained and tortured-generated global condemnation. Despite domestic and international calls for greater social and political freedoms in Nicaragua, the Ortega administration has continued to employ antidemocratic practices. Between 2007 and March 2024, the Ortega government closed more than 3,500 nongovernmental organizations focused on issues such as human rights, medical care and resources, religion, education, and civil and social matters. It also has closed 28 universities since December 2021, including the Jesuit-run University of Central America, seized in August 2023. More than 200,000 Nicaraguans have fled the country for political and economic reasons since 2018. A majority of those displaced have sought asylum in neighboring Costa Rica, and some have sought entry into the United States. In February 2023, the Ortega administration released 222 political prisoners to the United States. A week after the prisoner release, the Nicaraguan government stripped 94 political opponents of their citizenship, describing them as traitors to their homeland. As of mid-April 2024, 138 political prisoners remained in Nicaragua, 128 of whom were detained since the start of the 2018 protests. In addition, at least 46 Catholic clergy were under arrest in Nicaragua at some point during 2023. Economic nvironment Nicaragua has the second-lowest per capita income in the Western Hemisphere, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Ortega administration has generally maintained market-oriented economic policies, and economic growth averaged 4.2% from 2007 to 2017, according to the IMF. Nicaragua's GDP contracted by 1.8% in 2020, however, and unemployment nearly doubled, from 6.2% in 2019 to an estimated 11% in 2021. Economists attributed the economic downturn to the effects of the country's political crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and two major hurricanes. The Nicaraguan economy began to recover with 10.3% growth in 2021, followed by 3.8% and 4.7% growth in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The IMF projects that growth will slow to 3.5% in 2024. High consumer price inflation and interest rates, limited public sector expenditures, and slowing remittances from migrant workers abroad are reportedly contributing to the slowdown. Gold is Nicaragua's largest export. The country appears to export more gold than it officially produces, which some observers argue is likely due to domestic illegal mining and the country serving as a transit point for gold mined in other countries, such as Venezuela. Despite the threat of U.S.

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