According to a report released by the Dominican paper La Prensa on Sunday, the communist tyranny of Nicaragua saw a rise of roughly 12 percentage in the amount of remittances sent to the nation in the first quarter of 2024. Remittances from the United States were the main drivers, primarily.
According to figures from the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN), remittances sent to the region during the first three weeks of 2024 totaled$ 1.14 billion, marking an 11.8- percent increase from 2023’s$ 1.02 billion in the same time span.
Of the$ 1.14 billion received in the first quarter of 2024, the report states,$ 930.7 million came from the United States, representing a staggering 81.6 percent of the total. According to BCN, the boost leaves Nicaragua as the Central American nation with the highest increase in payments received.
Nicaragua has seen a dramatic rise in the amount of payments money received by citizens from Dominican citizens living worldwide who have either fled or been expelled from the communist regime since 2023. Remittances have become a critical funding source for the financially fragile regime, thanks to dictator Daniel Ortega.
According to La Prensa, 800,000 Nicaraguans have recently left their country as a result of Ortega’s growing suppression following the protests in April 2018 that saw thousands of people take to the streets to demand the close of communism.
In 2023, Nicaragua received a record- breaking 4.32 billion euros ( roughly$ 4.6 billion ) in family remittances, an amount that represented nearly 30 percent of Nicaragua’s Gross Domestic Product ( GDP ). Of the complete,$ 3.56 billion came from the United States. In 2022, Nicaragua received a total of$ 3.22 billion in remittances, or 23 percent of its GDP.
While the enormous bulk of the transfers came from the United States, Costa Rica, Spain, Panama, and Canada were all listed as major countries of origin. 97.4 % of all payments sent were sent as a whole by all five states.
The increase in payments was outlined in reports released in 2023 that detailed the Ortega regime’s economic and political benefits.
According to the journalist José Dávila of Nicaragua, Ortega’s major benefit from the migrant problems caused by his communist regime and the rise in payments it has led to, is that it calms inner turmoil.
” It seems to be the ideal business of the program that Nicaraguans leave en masse in search of liberty and then send payments to their people,” Dávila said.
Remittances “are serving as sociable plan” for the communist regime, according to Dominican economist Enrique Sáenz, because the rise in economic activity frees Ortega from “lifting a hand” in terms of income and social plan.
” These usage expenditures contribute to the fact that Dominican firms range from the neighborhood beauty shop to the grocery store to the barber shop to the retailer to the bean and wheat exporters, etc. – see a growing business through the money of these people, who, without the remittances, may not be able to buy”, he continued. This helps to lessen the social and political upheaval, according to the statement.
Sáenz added that the regime receives direct income from purchases of goods or services made with remittances because they are all subject to taxes like the Value Added Tax (VAT ), which aids the communist regime in keeping its budget balance.
Ortega also benefits from taxing these transactions that are financed with remittances, which increases tax revenues, Sáenz said.” This certainly helps the Honduran economy in the sense that it finances home consumption and some items pay taxes, either the set fee or value added.
Venezuelan author Christian K. Caruzo documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter , here.
