Report: Nicaragua Breaks Record for Remittances Sent from U.S.

The national Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa reported on Wednesday that the country has seen a historic increase in the amount of money entering via remittances from the United States.

Nicaragua is experiencing a surge in remittances from the United States sent by Nicaraguans abroad to their relatives and friends at home. The money allows the communist regime to fund its repression of dissidents and collaborate with rogue regimes — such as China, Russia, and Iran.

La Prensa, citing statistics from the Nicaraguan Central Bank (BCN), reported that Nicaragua received $2.052 billion in remittances during the first five months of 2024, a 12.7-percent increase compared to the same period in 2023, translating to $231 million more.

The increase in remittances received, La Prensa said, was mainly driven by remittances sent from the United States, which comprised $1.688 billion of the total. The newspaper explained that for every $100 that entered the Nicaraguan economy through remittances, $82 originated from the United States.

La Prensa further noted that Nicaragua received a record-breaking $462.4 million in remittances in May 2024, of which $385.9 million originated from the United States. For comparison, U.S.-sent remittances to Nicaragua during May 2017 totaled $69.2 million.

The scale of remittances sent from the United States to Nicaragua in May is 3.2 times higher than the $118.2 million received in May 2021, when communist dictator Daniel Ortega reportedly began to implement plans to “weaponize” migration against the United States to force the U.S. government into potential sanctions relief negotiations with his authoritarian regime.

In recent years, Ortega’s regime has dramatically increased its brutal repression, banishing hundreds of political dissidents — including members of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church, who have been subject to a fierce persecution campaign. The Church became a target after the April 2018 protests in which thousands of Nicaraguans flocked to the streets calling for freedom and the end of communism in their nation.

The deteriorating human rights situation in Nicaragua, which the Ortega regime caused, has prompted hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans to flee their country. La Prensa estimated in April that some 800,000 Nicaraguans have fled from their country since 2018. During the 2022 fiscal year, U.S. border officials logged 163,876 encounters with Nicaraguan nationals at the southern border.

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The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden launched a “humanitarian parole” program in January 2023 that allows up to 30,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan citizens per month to request entry into the United States. Beneficiaries of the program are granted advanced authorization to travel to the United States and are allowed to stay and work for up to two years. As of December 2023, U.S. authorities have reportedly granted parole status to some 60,000 Nicaraguans.

Experts explained in 2023 that, by allowing Nicaraguans to flee the country and then send remittances back to their families, Ortega benefits both from an economic and political standpoint. The flight of Nicaraguans from their country allows the communist dictator to “calm internal unrest,” while the remittances the migrants send home serve as a “social policy,” as the increase in economic activity from remittances allows Ortega to benefit without having to “lift a finger” in terms of fixing Nicaragua’s ailing economy.

The experts also point out that goods or services paid by locals with money received from remittances generate direct income to the regime, as all of them are subject to taxation — such as the Value Added Tax (VAT), which helps the communist regime balance its troubled budget.

In 2023, Nicaragua received a then-record-breaking 4.32 billion euros (roughly $4.6 billion) in family remittances, an amount that represented nearly 30 percent of Nicaragua’s gross domestic product (GDP). Of the total, $3.56 billion came from the United States. In 2022, Nicaragua received a total of $3.22 billion in remittances, 23 percent of its GDP.

La Prensa reported that Costa Rica, Spain, and Panama trail the United States on the list of top sources of remittances to Nicaragua. Similarly to the United States, Costa Rica and Spain experienced a growth in the number of remittances sent during the first five months of 2024 of 18.7 and 10.6 percent, respectively. Panama, which ranked fourth, saw a 3.4-percent reduction in the number of remittances sent, totaling $22.7 million between January and May 2024.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.