The federal government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is weaponizing the mass migration of its residents and people from different international locations, making it simpler for the latter to make use of the nation as a transit level on their strategy to the U.S. border, based on Manuel Orozco, director of the migration program on the Inter-American Dialogue, and worldwide organizations such because the Group of American States. Not like different Central American international locations which have applied extra stringent visa laws to manage migration to the U.S., Managua permits residents from round 90 international locations to enter visa-free, permitting them to bypass the harmful Darien Hole route by means of Panama on their means north.
Nicaragua’s visa-free entry coverage, first applied in 2021, considerably elevated migration from Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela to the nation to start their journey to the US. Over time, this system has attracted migrants from South America, many African international locations, former Soviet Republics and China. The Nicaraguan authorities advantages from facilitating migration in a number of methods. First, it serves as a bargaining software with the U.S., permitting it to exert affect or acquire concessions by controlling or threatening to manage migration flows.
Encouraging the emigration of Nicaraguans has additionally helped the Ortega administration ease a number of the home pressures inside Nicaragua, reminiscent of excessive unemployment and poverty, by decreasing the variety of individuals looking for jobs and sources. Unemployment amongst these aged 15-24 reached 11.3 % in 2020 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and it remained at 9.5 % in 2024.
