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Nicaragua: IMF Threatens to Cut Off Support
Nicaragua Network Hotline
January 20, 2003
IMF Threatens to Cut Off Support
A six-person technical mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
acted like typical mafia-style protection racket enforcers in Nicaragua
last week. Their anti-democratic message was, "Revert to the president's
original budget for 2003, or face the consequences."
In their final press conference, members of the mission made it clear
that the changes made during the budget debate in the National Assembly
would have to be reversed if Nicaragua was not to lose all bilateral and
multilateral aid. In its turn, loss of this support would mean that the
country would be unable to meet the requirements to remain within the
"Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative"
(HIPC). HIPC is another con game engineered by the IMF and World Bank
to allow them to control national economies on the ever receding promise
of cancellation of part of their external debt. "In departing from
the original budget" as proposed by President Bolaños for
ratification by the National Assembly "Nicaragua has placed itself
outside the agreement made with the IMF", a spokesperson said. "As
a result it can no longer be considered to be within the IMF program.
Unless this situation changes by February or March, when another mission
will be here, then Nicaragua will receive no support from the international
community"
Reaction to the IMF strong-arm tactics was swift. The IMF most objects
to the National Assembly's reprioritization that will allow small raises
for police, teachers and health workers.
Alejandro Bendaña, Director of the prestigious Center for International
Studies, accused the IMF of a "policy of blackmail worse than that
which existed during the Spanish colonization." "We have never
elected the IMF to be our government," he expostulated. "The
Nicaraguan government has two options, to hand over the Nicaraguan people
to the bureaucrats, or to pack the IMF mission back onto its plane and
send it home to Washington. The IMF is widely discredited; there are many
peoples, initiatives and ethical tribunals that have condemned it and
its policies. Its prescriptions constantly violate human rights, imposing
policies which inflict more impoverishment and hunger, less health care
and education."
Bendaña's position was strongly echoed by a united Sandinista
Front. Also accusing the IMF of blackmail, FSLN General Secretary Daniel
Ortega emphasized that the mission's position "showed a complete
disrespect for Nicaragua's national sovereignty." Reading from a
statement prepared by the Sandinista National Council, Ortega claimed
that the amendments passed by the National Assembly actually meant that
the budget remained within the overall IMF guidelines in any case, with
the added benefit that the proposed raises offered to the sixty-five thousand
public sector workers would put more money into
the economy and so generate more state income through taxes and other
spin-off effects.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) also joined the chorus
of criticism. In a strong statement, CENIDH maintained that, "Since
1990, a succession of Nicaraguan governments has made agreements with
the IMF on the backs of the Nicaraguan people. None of these has led to
any improvement; rather the overall quality of life for the majority has
been constantly deteriorating. The Nicaraguan people are the victims of
a new dictatorship, that of the IMF, which imposes fundamentalist economic
models through authoritarian and anti-democratic means. These models serve
only to deepen our dependence and under-development. We call on President
Bolaños to act with firmness and dignity; he must not allow the
IMF to continue to act in this arrogant manner." CENIDH further issued
a call for the creation of alternative proposals to set over against the
"blackmail and pressures of the multilateral organizations."
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This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service and other sources.
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