H.R. 1918: Nicaragua Investment Conditionality Act (NICA) reintroduced earlier this month

I wrote this when it was first introduced: The NICA Act, or the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act, is aimed at improving the election process in Nicaragua. It was first introduced to the US House of Representatives in 2016, but was unable to stay relevant because of the 2016 election. This week, it has been reintroduced.

Nicaragua recently elected president Daniel Ortega of the FSLN. There were no foreign observers allowed, and right-wing liberal opposition parties have claimed that Ortega would be president regardless of what people voted for—that the election was rigged by and for the FSLN.

As a result, the United States has threatened to revoke all future investments to the Nicaraguan Government until they have what the US government will consider "free, fair, and transparent" elections. These investments would be, unless revoked, going towards Nicaragua's subsidized food and transit for low wage workers, free education, free health care, and other incredibly important pieces of Nicaraguan leftist programs.

Every single political party in Nicaragua, the OAS, global trade unions, and ALBA have voiced their opposition to this. This includes the political parties who were complaining about election rigging in the first place. The Sandinistas, the other socialist parties, the Nicaraguan Opposition Union (coalition of mostly right-wing and fascist parties, but also Nicaragua's Marxist-Leninist party) have all opposed it.

This will only negatively impact the Nicaraguan proletariat. And in the words of the OAS representative for Nicaragua, "impoverishing a country will not bring democracy."

Here are some resources for it:

There are some other news sources talking about it, but they are all in Spanish, and I'm not sure you speak/read Spanish.


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