The countries of Central America are being hit hard by the global economic crisis, and Nicaragua is no exception. Last week, at a meeting of the Central American Integration System in Managua, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista party leader and close friend of Hugo Chávez, proposed a remedy: The United States should give the region an economic bailout. Ortega argued that since Central American countries “are part of the crisis,” and since many have signed a free-trade pact with the United States (CAFTA), the U.S. government is obliged “to give resources to the region.”
As Tim Rogers reported in the Miami Herald, “None of the other Central American leaders at [the March 25] meeting–attended by the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador, and Panama–seconded Ortega’s motion. And Panama’s President Martín Torrijos, who is trying desperately to finalize a U.S. free-trade agreement for his own country, appeared to slouch deeper into his chair during Ortega’s intervention.”
