Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 13 sepTember 2018

Months of deadly unrest devastate Nicaragua’s economy

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN peaceful protest by the
ALFREDO ZUNIGA students, where people
Associated Press began to lose their lives,
LEON, Nicaragua (AP) — society suffered a social ex-
Two days after protests be- plosion where the private
gan in Nicaragua in April, a sector aligned with the
foreign auto components people,” he said. “The pri-
company was meeting at vate sector is committed to
a hotel in the city of Leon trying to find a negotiated
when smoke from a burn- exit from the crisis.”
ing university building just Juan Sebastian Chamorro,
a block away billowed who leads the Nicaraguan
above the hotel’s colon- Foundation for Economic
naded courtyard. and Social Development,
The visitors quickly cut said the government has
short their event and be- shown signs that it recogniz-
gan changing their travel es the severity of the eco-
plans to exit Nicaragua. nomic impact. It has issued
Within three months, the El new debt, adjusted rules to
Convento hotel itself was tighten the selling of dollars
forced to close for lack of and cut public spending
business, as a sister hotel in as it forecasts a 10 percent
the same city had in June. drop in tax revenue.
Nicaragua’s economy has Whether any of that will be
been devastated by the In this Sept 7, 2018 photo, a man walks in the empty and shuttered halls of the Oriental Market enough to stop the econo-
nearly five months of un- during a 24 hour national strike, in Managua, Nicaragua. my’s slide is doubtful unless
rest sparked by cuts to so- Associated Press it’s accompanied by a po-
cial security benefits that general manager of both tracting international tour- and restaurants cut back litical solution that restores
quickly evolved into calls Leon hotels, continues ism, because this situation hours, then days and even- stability, experts said.
for President Daniel Ortega checking email, but said tends to repel the tourists.” tually closed completely. For years Leon had been at
to step down. “I haven’t gotten any re- A major factor has been For years, Ortega enjoyed a best a day trip for foreign
In June, the country’s eco- quests from foreigners for that the countries that send relatively stable relationship tourists beginning to ex-
nomic activity was down reservations. We have re- Nicaragua’s big-spending with private business. Since plore better-known Grana-
12.1 percent compared to ceived five, maybe eight, foreign tourists, including returning to power in 2007, da or San Juan del Sur. But
a year earlier, according to rate inquiries from domes- the U.S., Canada, Spain the one-time Marxist rebel the city had worked hard
the central bank. Econo- tic (travelers), but no firm and England, issued travel commander had softened to get attention and Art
mists estimate 200,000 jobs reservations.” warnings urging their citi- his views and largely left Ni- Collection Hotels had bet
have been shed, including Leon, Nicaragua’s second- zens to avoid travel to Ni- caragua’s private sector to on its prospects by open-
as many as 70,000 in the largest city, was among caragua. do what it wanted. ing its second hotel, La Re-
tourism sector, which has the places where protests Major airlines such as Amer- The relationship was criti- coleccion, in 2017.
become Nicaragua’s top and roadblocks were most ican and United cut their cized by some as a tacit “We had high expectations
source of foreign currency intense. From the begin- flights to Managua from agreement to keep the for this year,” said Sevilla,
in the past two years. ning, those protests were three per day to one. Spir- country’s business elites out the manager of the closed
Revenue at hotels and res- met with violence from riot it, Delta and other carriers of politics. In an interview hotels.
taurants plunged 45 per- police and civilian govern- trimmed their flights as well, in July with Venezuela’s He had 113 employees be-
cent in June compared to ment supporters. In July, said Jose Adan Aguerri, Telesur network, Ortega tween the two properties.
2017, according to Nicara- they violently cleared the president of the Superior said his understanding with They were able to suspend
gua’s central bank. Similar- roadblocks and ran pro- Council for Private Enter- Nicaragua’s private sector 67, which will enable them
ly, construction suffered a testing students off occu- prise. had been strictly economic to come back without los-
35 percent drop and retail pied university campuses. The council, which is Ni- and not political. ing any benefits of seniority,
27 percent. Some $900 mil- More than 300 people caragua’s main business In April, however, the coun- but the rest were laid off.
lion in deposits fled Nicara- have been killed in the un- chamber, joined the call try’s business interests, He has remained in touch
gua’s banks. They respond- rest, according to human for a national strike Sept. 7. caught off guard by the so- with some of the workers.
ed by tightening their lend- rights groups. The govern- The Civic Alliance, formed cial security system chang- Those still around are taking
ing to preserve liquidity, ment calls the protesters to represent a broad swath es, quickly joined the op- whatever work they can
thus also contributed to the “terrorists” and says it de- of Nicaraguan society in a position. As the social and find, but he estimated at
economic slowdown. feated an attempt to drive stalled dialogue with the political crisis deepened, least half left the country,
Nicaraguan Union of Ag- Ortega from office that government, said the strike the private sector became with most of those seeking
ricultural Producers says was sponsored by the U.S. aimed to push the govern- increasingly outspoken in tourism sector jobs in Costa
more than 12,000 acres of government and domestic ment back to dialogue calling for Ortega to move Rica.
private land have been opposition, including some and to protest the arrest of up elections. The hotels have 190 reser-
occupied by government in the private sector. alliance members and oth- Mario Arana, director of vations for November —
supporters in what business Ortega conceded this er political prisoners. the Nicaragua Association the start of the high season
leaders have called confis- month that the roadblocks The country’s primary tour- of Producers and Exporters — but that’s less than half
cations in revenge for their and unrest have cost the ist destinations like the co- and a former head of the what they had in Novem-
support of the protesters. country jobs. In an interview lonial gem Granada and central bank, said the pri- ber last year. Still, he hopes
The producers say 91 per- with Spanish news agency the Pacific coast surfer vate sector decided to get they can start working their
cent of the land occupied EFE, he said domestic tour- paradise San Juan del Sur more involved when stu- way back again in Octo-
by squatters was used for ism was starting to return, began feeling the conse- dent protesters were killed. ber. Even if that works out,
farming and livestock. but “where there has been quences of the unrest al- “When there was an over- he predicts a slow climb
Victor Hugo Sevilla, the more of a problem is in at- most immediately. Hotels reaction here to a civil, back to normalcy.q