The continued “weaponization” of U.S.-bound migrants by Nicaragua’s communist dictator Daniel Ortega netted the country’s airport authority more than $4 million in profits in the first third of 2024, a research institute has said. report Published by Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa On Thursday.
Starting in 2022, President Ortega has allowed migrants from other continents, including Latin America, Africa and Asia, to use Nicaragua’s main international airport as a stopover on their way to the US.
In recent years, hundreds of thousands of migrants have chosen to pass through Nicaragua to reach U.S. territory because the country has fewer visa requirements and its location in Central America means they don’t have to cross the highly dangerous jungle roads of the Darien Canyon between Colombia and Panama.
Experts Accused Ortega has been accused of using immigration to push the United States into potential sanctions relief negotiations with the communist regime. Get profits Deter immigrants by imposing visitor taxes and other fees on the use of airport facilities.
All airports in Nicaragua are operated and managed by the country’s National International Airports Authority (EAAI). La Prensa In its latest report, EAAI revealed that it has been facing a serious financial crisis since 2009 and has been operating with a serious deficit since that same year. Its fortunes improved in 2022, when it began making profits through Managua’s international airport, just as dictator Ortega reportedly began “weaponizing” migration against the United States.
Based on the documents reviewed La Prensa According to the EAAI report, between January and March 2024, EAAI generated revenue of approximately $4.4 million, marking a 60% increase in revenue compared to the same period in 2023. La PrensaManagua’s international airport is currently the only Nicaraguan airport that is profitable for the Ortega regime.
Nicaraguan newspapers explained that EAAI’s prolonged financial crisis has forced the state airport authority to raise funds through the Nicaraguan stock exchange and that it is subject to a debt rating process. They cited a document issued by the Central American Risk Rating Association (SCR) as saying: La Prensa The SCR’s ratings committee said it agreed to revise EAAI’s short-term and long-term ratings “subject to improvement at cash flow levels, given the recent increase in airport revenues that has allowed for debt relief.”
According to the SCR document: La Prensa, The rating agency also said it would monitor passenger inflows and outflows to ensure achieved revenue levels can be maintained and debt amortisation and planned investments can continue.
Additionally, the document states that seven commercial airlines currently operate in Nicaragua, seven freighters operate at different frequencies, and 16 charter airlines also operate in the country. stand out The use of charter flights by migrants to the United States increased sharply, reaching approximately 1,150 charter flights. Estimation It is scheduled to land in Managua between May 2023 and May 2024.
“As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, the cumulative total of international passenger arrivals and departures at Managua International Airport was 333,147, a 32% increase compared to the same period last year,” the SCR document stated.
“Cumulative revenues for the first quarter of the year reached 395.7 million cordobas. [roughly $10.8 million]”, La Prensa “The annual increase was 20 percent, driven mainly by a 23 percent increase in airport revenues, the main source of income,” the report said.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has tried over the past year to crack down on the use of Nicaragua as a temporary destination for migrants, particularly the increased use of charter flights to Managua. Sanctions Against a Nicaragua-based charter airline and its executives.
Separate Report Published by La Prensa Last week, he said Biden administration measures were “insufficient” to reduce the number of U.S.-bound migrants passing through Nicaragua, saying migration flows would remain “constant and largely unchanged” compared to 2023. More than 300,000 migrants reportedly used Managua’s international airport on their journeys to the United States that year.
Ortega’s administration approved a roughly $400 million loan from China this year for a project to upgrade the dilapidated Punta Huete military airport, built in the 1980s, into a brand new international airport.
A $400 million loan to build a second international airport in Nicaragua attachment The debt that the Ortega government has accumulated to Communist China since January 2022, when it formally joined the Communist government’s predatory Belt and Road (BRI) debt-trap program.
