Cutting off loans to Nicaragua from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), as the new sanctions bill seeks to do, would cut funding for new hospitals such as this one in Chinandega. Photo: CABEI.
By Jill Clark-Gollub – Jan 24, 2024
The deceptively named Restoring Sovereignty and Human Rights Act is advancing through Congress. Designed to do the exact opposite of promoting sovereignty or human rights, it must be stopped.
We must urge legislators not to impose such collective punishment on the Nicaraguan people, which will hurt the most vulnerable and exacerbate migration.
Senate Bill 1881 was filed by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) in June 2023. It will likely be discussed in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before mid-February. Its companion, House Bill, H.R.6954, was filed on January 11th and has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The legislation would:
- Work with bank member countries to curtail lending to Nicaragua from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) – the only bank still lending to Nicaragua in amounts that help development.
- Ban some imports into the United States of Nicaraguan beef, coffee, and gold.
- Initiate measures to remove Nicaragua from the regional free trade agreement, DR-CAFTA (Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement).
- Prohibit new US investment in Nicaragua.
Impacts of sanctions
The US government has illegally imposed unilateral coercive measures (a.k.a. sanctions) on some 40 countries around the world, in which one-third of humanity lives. Whole populations are ultimately denied access to the necessities of life, such as adequate food, clean water, medicines, and fuel. The most vulnerable citizens – children, the elderly, the sick and the poor – are most heavily impacted.
Ever increasing sanctions on Nicaragua could lead to situations such as that of Venezuela, with 40,000 excess deaths in just one year due to the US blockade of its oil sector. In Cuba, the people are suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in their history from the ever tightening 60-year blockade.
The NICA Act, imposed in 2018, already caused Nicaragua to lose over $1.4 billion between 2018 and 2021, amounting to 90% of its funding from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the International Monitory Fund (IMF). This has impacted development of the Caribbean coast, school lunch programs for vulnerable children, child development programs, access to safe drinking water in rural areas and much more.
From 2018-2022 Nicaragua saw its IDB loans fall by $131 million annually, money which would have enabled the country to build 265 kilometers of roads and four hospitals, and to improve drinking water systems in two main cities. CABEI has been picking up the slack, so the US Congress is now pressuring this bank to withhold loans to Nicaragua. And the US does not even hold membership in CABEI while Nicaragua holds 10.6% of shares.
What we must do
Now is the time for US-based friends of the Nicaraguan people who care about peace and justice to tell their members of Congress to vote NO on S.1881 and H.R.6954!
- Find your representative here and your senators here and call them. When you call, ask to speak with the aide who handles foreign policy. If the foreign policy aide is not available, ask to leave a message on his or her voice-mail. Here is a sample script (even better if you put this in your own words):
My name is _______ and I am a constituent from (town/city), in (your state). I want senator or representative _______ to vote NO on Senate bill 1881/ H.R.6954 that would impose further sanctions on the people of Nicaragua. Unilateral coercive measures are illegal under international law and have been extensively proven to cause suffering and death among the most vulnerable people—children, the elderly, the sick, and the poor. The measures do not improve conditions in the targeted countries, they negatively impact human rights, and they exacerbate migration. For these reasons and more, I urge you to vote NO on S.1881 or H.R.6954. Thank you.
- Email your representative (here) and your senators (here). You could use the above paragraph and add the following detail:
S.1881/H.R.6954 would ban some gold, coffee, and beef exports from Nicaragua to the United States, which could impact thousands of jobs in Nicaragua, destabilize the economy, and force people to migrate. Measures to expel Nicaragua from the DR-CAFTA trade agreement and exclude it from financing at the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, could not be accomplished without violating the law and interfering in the sovereign decisions of other Central American countries. Those countries would also likely be destabilized by disruption of the Nicaraguan economy. For these reasons and more, I urge you to vote NO on S.1881 or H.R.6954. Thank you.
- Request a meeting by contacting the office of your Senator or Representative.
- Sign here to tell Congress to support the House Resolution to Annul the Monroe Doctrine, including its call for the elimination of all unilateral economic sanctions.
- Write to the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition here to join our efforts to stop further sanctions.
- Share this message with all your contacts and encourage them to tell Congress to Vote NO on S.1881/H.R.6954!
Jill Clark-Gollub organizes study delegations to Nicaragua and has published in outlets including COHA, Popular Resistance, and Alliance for Global Justice
