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The Nicaragua Government has gone too far

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By Sir Ronald Sanders

(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organisation of American States.  He is also a senior fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto.   The views expressed are his own)

The English-speaking Caribbean has just emerged from a season manifesting the spirit, intrinsic to Christmas, of ‘peace on earth and goodwill to all’.

Not even the no-confidence vote that was carried against the APNU-AFC coalition government in Guyana on Friday, December 21 disrupted the festive celebrations of the period.  Bitterness, felt by faithful supporters of the main political party, the Peoples’ National Congress (PNC), was contained in sterile argument about whether the Constitution was correctly interpreted, and, therefore, the possibility of overturning the vote.

In the coming weeks, that argument might be tested in the Court, which is the appropriate place to settle disputes peacefully and legally.

In Barbados, despite the stringent austerity programme upon which the 7-month old Mia Mottley government has had to embark to put on an even keel an economy left in shatters by the predecessor regime of Freundel Stuart, there was a sense of optimism amid strenuous conditions for many.

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The point is that people in these two countries have not been encouraged to march in the streets, nor have they been manipulated to attack one another based on party political support.  Instead, the debates have been rife in the media with no restrictions, no political demonstrations, no deployment of police to tear gas protesters, and no arbitrary arrest or detention of real or suspected organisers.

In other parts of the region, particularly in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada and St Lucia, dissent and disagreement are being been expressed and rebutted within the law.  The media – both traditional and social – are replete with discussion on all sides of arguments, including, unfortunately, what has come to be known as ‘fake news’; the deliberate distribution of false and harmful information.  But no media has been silenced by government action, and no protest suffocated.  All ideas are contending, as they should.

But, this maturity of managing dissent; of responding to it with counter arguments, with challenges to its veracity; and by acknowledging shortcomings and acting to correct them, continues to elude parts of the Caribbean region where recent protests against a government have been suffocated by tear-gas and arbitrary arrests and draconian use of laws not meant for this purpose.  This is an ugly scar on the Caribbean’s face of human, civil and political rights. It will attract to the region the strongest condemnation and eventual intervention by way of sanctions by the international community if it continues.

In the sub-region of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the member-states collectively have collectively shied-away from criticism of excessive behaviour in individual member states.   Similarly, CARICOM member states have not pronounced collectively when regimes in other countries in the Western Hemisphere have assaulted their people, imprisoned politicians, and detained champions of human rights.

In part, this studious silence arises from the notion that events in neighbouring counties are “not our business’ and we would best serve ourselves by not getting involved.  But within the region, neighbourhood business is local business.  For events in one country quickly infect the other.

Because CARICOM has been collectively silent, member states have joined other groups to express their concern, voice their condemnation and even vote against actions by governments within the Western hemisphere that have sought to maintain themselves in power through constitutional manipulation, rigged elections including partisan election machinery, stifling dissent and the excessive use of force by the police and military.   This has weakened CARICOM as an agency for advancing Caribbean interests.

This ought not to be the case. Rising-up from a history of slavery and indentured labour, of worker exploitation and human rights atrocities whose scars continue to mark the region today, Caribbean countries should be the strongest defenders of political, civil and human rights.

It is by winning those rights that Caribbean countries emerged into political independence and into some degree of economic self-determination.  These are values that form part of the ethos of the Caribbean civilization and they should be defended and upheld.   For their erosion elsewhere, could eventually spread to the corrosion within CARICOM states of the values of freedom of speech and expression, of political and trade union association, of human equality, and of the institutions that preserve them.   These are the very things that have occasioned high regard for the majority of Caribbean countries by their citizens, their visitors and their investors.

The CARICOM region, therefore, has a large stake in ensuring that democracy and human rights are upheld everywhere.  In doing so, they ought not to apply double standards such as the world has witnessed by some powerful governments.  Justice is not served by narrow political and economic interests.

But CARICOM silence should not be an option.  The region should be steadfast in upholding principles of justice in political, human and economic rights globally, even as it stands-up for international respect for those principles in relation to itself.

Within the hemisphere, over the last eight months, 322 people have been killed and 565 others jailed in Nicaragua.  Today, many of its citizens from cities across the country are hiding from the wrath of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.

Earlier this year, hundreds of thousands of people marched against the Ortega regime and were met by a repressive response.  The Ortega family now control virtually every aspect of government, including the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, the armed forces, the judiciary, the police and the prosecutor’s office. Ortega caused an amendment to the Constitution to keep himself in office, and presumably to maintain power that has allowed his adult children to manage everything from gasoline distribution to television stations.

The excesses continue, worsened this week by a raid on the country’s leading human rights organisation and the expulsion of international human rights observers. Among those expelled was Paulo Abrão, the executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of which all CARICOM countries are members.

CARICOM countries may continue to respond in different ways to events in Nicaragua, but acceptance cannot be one of them.

The Ortega regime has gone too far.

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In Other News

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL SELECTION)

 

OECS MSME Guarantee Facility Project

Loan No.: IDA-62670, IDA-62660, IDA-62640, IBRD-88830, IDA-62650

Assignment Title: Senior Operating Officer (SOO)

Reference No. KN-ECPCGC-207852-CS-INDV

 

The Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have received financing in the amount of US$10 million equivalent from the World Bank towards the cost of establishing a partial credit guarantee scheme, and they intend to apply part of the proceeds to payments for goods, and consulting services to be procured under this project. 

The consultant will serve as the “Senior Operating Officer (SOO)” for the ECPCGC and should possess extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to Micro, small and medium-sized businesses, knowledge of the internal control processes necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk mitigation procedures. The ideal candidate should possess an Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Accounting, Banking or related field, with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in lending, inclusive of MSME lending. The initial employment period will be for two years on a contractual basis. Renewal of the contract will be subject to a performance evaluation at the end of the contractual period. The assignment is expected to begin on September 30th, 2021.  The consultant will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the ECPCGC.

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be viewed by following the attached link below. 

 

https://bit.ly/3iVannm

 

The Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECPCGC) now invites eligible “Consultants” to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have:

  • An Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Finance, Banking or related field; and
  • Minimum of 5 years’ experience in MSME lending. Applicants should also have:
  • The ability to design and implement risk management procedures 
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to small and medium-sized businesses
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME banking operations
  • Knowledge of the internal controls necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk management procedures
  • Experience developing and presenting information in public, including responding to questions in real-time
  • Experience lending to MSMEs located in the ECCU
  • Knowledge of marketing and communicating with the MSME sector
  • Ability to draft procedures to be used in a lending operation
  • Familiarity with the mechanics of a loan guarantee program
  • Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills, and
  • Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite.

The attention of interested Individual Consultants is drawn to Section III, Paragraphs 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers July 2016, [revised November 2017] (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Approved Selection Method for Individual Consultants set out in the clause 7.34 of the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers. 

 

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours 0800 to 1700 hours:

Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation

Brid Rock, Basseterre,

St. Kitts.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form by e-mail by August 11th, 2021, to [email protected]. 

 

For further information, please contact:

Carmen Gomez-Trigg                                                            Bernard Thomas

Chief Executive Officer                                                          Chief Financial Officer

Tel: 868-620-8144                                                                  Tel: 869-765-2385

Email: [email protected]                                          [email protected]