{"id":6640,"date":"2018-10-15T10:10:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T14:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6640"},"modified":"2018-10-15T10:10:53","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T14:10:53","slug":"migrant-money-could-be-keeping-nicaraguas-uprising-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6640","title":{"rendered":"Migrant Money Could Be Keeping Nicaragua\u2019s Uprising Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"
Costa Ricans held a march in solidarity with Nicaraguan refugees on Aug. 25, 2018. An estimated 500,000 Nicaraguans live in Costa Rica, with more arriving daily as crisis in the country deepens. Reuters\/Juan Carlos Ulate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Protesting is now illegal in Nicaragua<\/a>, according to President Daniel Ortega.<\/p>\n

The Central American country has been embroiled in deadly political turmoil for months<\/a>. Demonstrations that began<\/a> in April against an unpopular social security reform quickly transformed into a broader movement aimed at ousting Ortega, Nicaragua\u2019s authoritarian president.<\/p>\n

Up to<\/a> 450<\/a> people have since been killed, including a 16-year-old boy caught in the crossfire<\/a> between government forces and demonstrators on Sept. 23.<\/p>\n

The growing number of protesters arrested and charged with terrorism led the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights<\/a> to call on Ortega to stop what they called his government\u2019s illegal detentions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, the president in late September banned<\/a> protests entirely. Thity-eight Nicaraguans were arrested on Oct. 14 for planning to march against<\/a> their government.<\/p>\n

Ortega\u2019s rise to power<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ortega, a former revolutionary leftist who ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s, returned to office in 2007. Over the past 11 years, he has grown ever more autocratic<\/a>, abolishing presidential term limits, enriching his family and restricting civil liberties.<\/p>\n

The common wisdom is that Ortega enjoyed such a long and, until now, uncontested reign because Nicaragua\u2019s economy boomed under his stewardship<\/a>, in part due to cheap and plentiful oil supplied by Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n

According to this theory, the growth allowed his government to pay for extensive anti-poverty programs<\/a>, earning him widespread popularity in the Western Hemisphere\u2019s second-poorest country<\/a> \u2013 until the economy began to stagnate last year.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the whole story behind Ortega\u2019s long rise and sudden unpopularity.<\/p>\n

While Nicaragua has prospered financially under his leadership, my research finds that<\/a> migrants living in Costa Rica, the U.S. and Spain also greatly boosted the domestic economy by sending home millions of dollars each year.<\/p>\n

Roughly 16 percent of the country\u2019s population lives abroad. Their remittances, which last year totaled US$1.4 billion, have fueled consumption and tempered political pressure on Ortega\u2019s government to reduce poverty.<\/p>\n

Now, Nicaragua\u2019s influential diaspora has turned its attention<\/a> to the resistance against Ortega.<\/p>\n

In a time when conflict and disaster are forcing even more people around the world to flee their homelands<\/a>, these findings from Nicaragua underscore the central role that migrants can play in today\u2019s globalized political economy.<\/p>\n

Migration as an escape valve<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nicaraguans began migrating in significant numbers during Ortega\u2019s first term, in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

The country was ravaged by civil war and burdened by debt<\/a>. In 1989, Ortega\u2019s socialist government was forced to undertake a series of austerity measures that left 14 percent of Nicaraguans unemployed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Subsequent governments enacted even harsher budget cuts, further driving up unemployment and pushing hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans to seek work in neighboring Costa Rica<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today an estimated 500,000 Nicaraguans live in Costa Rica<\/a>, and more are fleeing the country\u2019s political chaos ever day.<\/p>\n

Another 222,000 Nicaraguans live in the United States<\/a>, 80,000 in Panama<\/a> and an estimated 30,000 in Spain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Between 2007 and 2017 \u2013 the first decade of Ortega\u2019s current administration \u2013 total migrant remittances to Nicaragua totaled $12.5 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s more than 10 percent of Nicaragua\u2019s annual gross domestic product, on average, and in many years substantially more than total foreign direct investment in the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Remittances also dwarf the roughly $3.7 billion in oil aid<\/a> that Venezuela sent to Nicaragua during the same period.<\/p>\n

Remittances took the pressure off Ortega<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ortega\u2019s government indirectly benefited from this flood of foreign cash.<\/p>\n

Migrant money helped poor Nicaraguans make ends meet and allowed consumers<\/a> to keep pace with the expanding national economy<\/a> \u2013 greatly reducing demand on<\/a> Ortega\u2019s government to reduce poverty and unemployment.<\/p>\n

Still, Nicaragua remains very poor. About 40 percent of citizens<\/a> survive on less than $2.50 a day.<\/p>\n