Policies enacted by President Joe Biden to address Nicaragua’s communist regime’s use of its main airport as a hub for U.S.-bound migrants have had little effect in curbing migration, Nicaraguan newspapers have reported. La Prensa report On Thursday.
Nicaragua’s communist dictator Daniel Ortega has been accused of “weaponizing” Managua’s international airport against the United States by allowing migrants to arrive at the airport and then travel freely through the country on their way to the United States.
Thousands of migrants attempting to cross the U.S. southern border from Latin America and other continents choose to land in Managua first because the Sandinista government has very restrictive visa requirements. Nicaragua’s location in Central America allows migrants to avoid crossing the dangerous Darien Gap jungle road between Colombia and Panama.
Ortega’s government could benefit from allowing migrants through its own airports. Reportedly They charge more than $200 per person to use their facilities. was suggested President Ortega sees migration as a “great opportunity” to negotiate potential sanctions relief with the United States.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has tried in recent months to “crack down” on charter flights landing in Nicaragua. tendency Among immigrants trying to reach America, and imposed Sanctions Fines against Nicaragua-based charter airline and its executives. Biden administration caveat It suggested the airlines involved go through a review process and take steps to “avoid complicity.”
Expert estimate About 1,150 charter flights are expected to land in Managua between May 2024 and May 2024.
The measures adopted by the Biden administration include: La Prensa The report said it was “only marginally” effective in reducing migrants using Nicaragua to travel to the U.S. Migrant flows remained “constant and largely unchanged” compared to 2023, when more than 300,000 migrants reportedly used the airport on their journeys to the U.S.
According to statistics from the Nicaraguan Central Bank cited by the paper, a total of 198,500 travelers arrived at Managua’s airport between January and March 2024, of which only 179,600 left the country on outbound flights and 18,900 likely left by land for the United States.
During the same period in 2023, 147,600 travellers disembarked at the airport, but only 130,800 of them departed on outbound flights, a difference of 16,800.
“Data from the first quarter of this year show that Washington’s efforts to counter authoritarian regimes’ strategies are proving inadequate.” La Prensa Said.
La Prensa He noted that it will take two years to know the nationalities of migrants heading to the US because of a two-year delay in publishing data by the Nicaraguan Tourism Board (Intur), which handles the relevant statistics. La Prensa However, recently released immigration nationality data for 2022 showed a significant increase in the entry of Cubans and Ecuadorians, which the paper described as “in line with President Ortega’s strategy to place migrants at the U.S. border.”
Nicaraguan newspapers reported that if the trends recorded in the first three months of 2024 continue, Ortega’s government will have facilitated the passage of the same number of migrants this year compared to 2023. In 2023, 878,900 travelers entered the country through airports, but only 572,600 left the country, with 306,300 missing.
In 2022, when the Ortega administration began weaponizing migration to pressure Washington to negotiate potential sanctions relief, the difference between migrants who flew in but did not fly out was estimated at about 322,400.
“In other words, over a two-year, three-month period, the dictatorship managed to funnel 647,600 migrants to the U.S. border – and that doesn’t even include the Nicaraguans who were forced to leave the country,” the report said.
“In this way, Ortega could easily drive nearly a million migrants to the border of Nicaragua’s main trading partner, a country that is refusing to ratify one of the most important trade agreements for its economy and that supports the regime’s finances. Kafta-DR” the report continues.
La Prensa He said there could be a surge in migrant flows from Nicaragua over the remainder of 2024 as Ortega’s government moves into the country. Open Eleven new embassies were opened in the first half of the year, some in countries with no local Nicaraguan community to provide consular services.
“The dictatorship is not sending diplomats, it’s sending migration agents. The regime needs people on the ground to streamline and coordinate all of this,” said Arturo McFields, a former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS). La Prensa “On illegal immigration … I think Ortega needs to have people on the ground who will be his enforcers,” he said this week.
Ortega’s government has also begun allowing direct charter flights from countries that previously had no air service to Nicaragua, including Libya, Morocco, Germany and France. La Prensa The spokesman said that between May and early June, Libyan airline Ghadames Air operated three charter flights mainly carrying Indian nationals.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
