Anybody notice how nasty Nicaragua's Ortega regime has gotten since the migrant remittances started flowing?

American Thinker ^ | 31 Dec, 2023 | Monica Showalter

[MtnClimber]

The more people Ortega can drive out of his country, the richer and more oppressive he gets.

With Joe Biden's migrant surge, migrant remittances follow, and some very baleful developments are happening abroad.

The one that stands out is that of Marxist socialist Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua's little dictator, who along with a string of failed leaders before him, impoverished his country in relative obscurity, leaving it the hemisphere's second-poorest after Haiti. The country boasts a per capita income of about $2,200 per year which is lower than even Cubans are paid, and hard as heck to live on even in a low-cost country. A Nicaraguan can live on welfare in the states more richly -- and nearly a half a million of them from that country of 7 million already do. And as poverty has engulfed that country, Ortega then began dismantling political freedoms -- first with stolen elections -- then with making himself permanently electable in rigged elections and appointing his relatives to keep posts. Don't think there won't be more Nicaraguans leaving that place for those reasons -- they're coming, and already are well represented in the current migrant surge.

The migrant remittances tell the story.

In 2021, the State Department reported that Nicaragua took in a 'record' remittance haul of $1.2 billion.

It doubled in 2022.

Now it's doubled again, in 2023. According to a report from Reuters:

Nicaraguan migrants sent relatives back home record remittances this year through November, data from the country's central bank showed on Wednesday, fueled by massive waves of migration leaving the Central American nation in recent years.

In a statement, the bank noted a record haul of about $4.24 billion in remittances for the 11-month period, 47% more than the amount sent home during the same period last year.

[married21]

Thanks. I appreciate that perspective. Wonder if the guy I talked with only met mostly government officials.