The Ortega-Murillo regime took advantage of the migration crisis to defy whom it considers its main enemy. It turned the desire of thousands of migrants to reach the American dream into a political weapon that has pushed the migratory crisis in the United States to the limit on its southern border. As a collateral benefit, after decades of financial crisis, the National and International Airports Administration Company (EAAI) registered millionaire profits.

Between 2022 and the first quarter of 2024, some US$29 million was generated by the increase in passengers at Managua’s Augusto C. Sandino International Airport by charter flights, from all over the world, landing in the capital filled with migrants who then continue their journey towards the United States.

Furthermore, in a clear manipulation of the data, it includes these migrants as tourists and presents them as such to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and other international agencies linked to the activity, to claim an exceptional recovery in tourist arrivals.

As part of this strategy, the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (INTUR), delays its statistics for more than a year. A few months ago, it released the 2022 report. Concerning 2017, before the beginning of the socio-political crisis that later worsened with the pandemic, there was an increase of 20 thousand percent in the arrival of Cubans and 2 thousand percent of Ecuadorians.

Although INTUR has yet to publish its 2023 data, the Nicaraguan Central Bank (BCN) said that last year the tourism sector collected $739.2 million in revenue from the arrival of 1,202,300 tourists, up 29 percent from the 932,700 travelers in 2022. However, it did not include more data regarding the origin of the passengers.

In the statistics of visitors to the Managua International Airport published by the BCN, the margin between arrivals and departures began to widen as of 2022. Of the 1,769,700 passengers that entered the country by air between 2022 and April 2024, 649,200 did not leave by plane but continued their journey by land to the United States.

At the same time, a mechanism was established for migrants entering by land from Costa Rica. They are charged between $150 and $250 and are given a few hours to exit through the border to Honduras.

The human smuggling promoted by the Ortega Murillo regime began in November 2021 with the elimination of the visa requirement for Cubans and the establishment of the Caracas-Havana-Managua route operated by the Venezuelan airline Conviasa. Since then, the list of countries to which Nicaragua exempts from visa requirements has multiplied and charter flights with migrants now arrive from all continents.

Nicaragua’s strategy of disguising irregular migration as tourism recovery is weakened when statistics from the National Migration Institute (INM) of Honduras show that in 2022, 188,858 irregular migrants from Nicaragua entered its territory. Last year the figure rose to 545,043 people, and between January and May 2024, 219,675 irregular migrants from Nicaragua were reported to have entered the country.

Tourism operators assure that at the end of last year and the beginning of the current one, have been the best season since the socio-political crisis broke out in 2018. But despite the recovery, they admit that they are still far from the figures of 2017, when they catered to 1,957,822 tourists, including nearly 200 thousand visitors per day during the high season.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department recently included Nicaragua along with Cuba and Venezuela as the largest human traffickers in the region. In addition, since last year it began to restrict visas to businesspeople linked to human trafficking through Nicaragua.

Faced with so much evidence of what is happening, the Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation, CDN-Monteverde calls on the UNWTO and other tourism-related bodies not to allow the tragedy from which the Ortega Murillo regime is profiting to be recognized as an upturn in tourism, which is unlikely to recover while the state of repression persists in Nicaragua, where they even closed the organizations that brought together the entrepreneurs of the sector and keep the companies under constant surveillance and harassment.

CDN-Monteverde concludes successful advocacy tour in three Southern Cone countries

The first and most visible sign of the impact of the recent international tour made by a delegation of the Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation, CDN-Monteverde through Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile, is the outburst of insults and laments with which Rosario Murillo referred to the opposition in the context of this advocacy work that began in the framework of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS).

For the Ortega Murillo regime, it was a major political defeat that countries governed by the left, with which they identify themselves, turned their backs on them and voted unanimously with the rest of the region in favor of the resolution passed by the OAS General Assembly. The resolution condemned the actions of a State that violates human rights and democratic principles and demanded that the crimes committed should not remain in impunity.

For them, it was a strong blow because this condemnation and demand was not only endorsed by leaders such as Joe Biden (United States) and Justin Trudeau (Canada), whom they call imperialists but also by their allies, Manuel Andrés López Obrador of Mexico, Gustavo Petro of Colombia, Luis Arce of Bolivia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Xiomara Castro of Honduras.

Although these leaders share a common ideological affinity to that which the Ortega Murillo family also claims, they voted against a regime that day by day violates the human rights of its citizens, dismantles the rule of law, and copies the worst practices of dictatorial systems such as the Russian, Chinese or North Korean ones. Furthermore, they threaten the democratic stability of the region.

Forced with the decision not to complain against those who turned their backs on them, they showed their anger against the opposition, which constantly denounced them in all possible spaces.

The CDN-Monteverde has denounced the Ortega regime and will continue to do so before the British Parliament, the European Parliament, the American Congress, the OAS, the United Nations (UN), government representatives, human rights organizations, and all possible forums.

Nicaragua is no longer a member of the OAS. To ensure that its situation was present at the General Assembly held in Asuncion, Paraguay, we worked for several months with the members of the Group of Volunteer Countries for Nicaragua. The support of the Chilean mission to the OAS was fundamental in advancing the cause for the release of political prisoners and the restitution of the civil and political rights of Nicaraguans, which received full support from the continent’s countries.

After the victory at the OAS, the work of denouncing the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship took us to Argentina and Chile, where the Nicaraguan issue, beyond the governments and certain organizations, is not so well known, so it is essential to make these informative tours to bring it to a wider audience.

In Buenos Aires and Santiago, we met with representatives of government institutions, civil society organizations, political parties, business organizations, academics, media, and prominent personalities. And in a sign that the magnitude of the human rights and repression crisis facing Nicaraguans transcends ideological positions, we found Argentina governed by the right and Chile by the left, alarmed by what is happening and interested in finding a solution.

In all spaces, the expression of solidarity and concern for those who are still imprisoned in Nicaragua and those who were expelled and deprived of their rights and nationality was resounding.

Coverage by the mainstream media was exceptional and this contributed to making the Nicaraguan reality more widely known within these countries.

The openness we found on the part of the political class to analyze actions in favor of freedom and democracy in Nicaragua was very encouraging.  Following the call of the OAS resolution to act, we are promoting work with a Group of Friendly Countries, different from the OAS Voluntary Group, which seeks to include representations from both Latin America and Europe, to promote actions and a joint strategy with the international community.

From the CDN-Monteverde we will continue to promote the actions promoted in this tour, and we will continue to denounce and show the true face and narrative of the Nicaraguan dictatorship.