Enrique Saenz

To retain his grip on state power, Ortega is deploying a strategy on multiple fronts. The negotiation table is just one of the arenas where Ortega plays and certainly not the only one. Therefore, if we hope to achieve freedom then we need to confront Ortega on all fronts.

The total amount of credits channeled through Albanisa, as of June 2018, is close to 4 billion dollars. In times of the fat cows (good times) they averaged 500 million dollars per year, no strings attached. A liquid capital that Ortega managed to his discretion, as private capital.

The brutal blow that the government of Daniel Ortega has just given to Nicaraguans with the new social security reforms must be fully appreciated in light of its causes and background. The writing has been on the wall progressively for a decade.

Ortega has the strange ability to create consensus, but in opposition to him. He also achieved this in the United States, bringing together democrats and republicans–who never agree on anything–and yet they adopted a unanimous policy towards his regime.

The statements from high-level representatives of the current Mexican government announcing their willingness to serve as mediators in the Nicaraguan crisis, provoked a broad and serious debate, as well as concerns and some aggravation.

Daniel Ortega has achieved what neither Putin, nor climate change, nor China, nor the immigration problem, nor Maduro nor Syria could do: he inspired nothing more and nothing less than the adoption of a bipartisan consensus between the US Republican and Democratic parties regarding his regime.

The backbone of the Ortega regime’s political communications strategy at this time is centered on the attempt to demonstrate that the country has returned to normal. It’s a sterile effort, condemned to failure, since the realities and the very decisions and actions of the regime all point in the opposite direction.

These days a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is making its customary annual visit to Nicaragua. This mission is relevant because it is the first one that takes place within the framework of the socio-political crisis and the consequences that may derive from its conclusions.

The wave of repression underscores the failure of Ortega’s attempt to present himself as a victim and as someone who respects human rights and the law, in the many interviews he gave to the international press. Ortega knows that people do not believe him.