 Welcome to what the F is going on in Latin America, CodePink's weekly YouTube program of hot news out of Latin America and the Caribbean. In partnership with Friends of Latin America and Task Force on the Americas, we broadcast every Wednesday, 4.30 p.m. Pacific, 7.30 p.m. Eastern on CodePink's YouTube channel. July 19 marks the 42nd anniversary of the day the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional took Managua, Nicaragua. And ousted the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship, which had been in power for two generations spanning over 40 years. As has been the case since 1979, through the 1980s and most recently, April of 2018, U.S. attempts to remove President Ortega from power are once again in full view with the simultaneous introduction of the Renacer Act in both houses of the United States Congress. There is the an acronym for reinforcing Nicaraguas and adherence to conditions for Electoral Reform Act of 2021. That's a mouthful I know for all of you. But if you read one or both acts, they're pretty much verbatim, copies of one another. It's basically nothing short of regime change legislation via economic sanctions. I encourage you to read both bills. The bills include such language as the need for the Sandinista government to improve its response to hurricanes and this referencing the two hurricanes that hit Nicaragua November of 2020. And it's just absolutely amazing that this is even in the bill considering some of the lack of hurricane response in the United States. So both bills contain language such as that. So that gives you an idea of what we're going to talk about today. So today, I want us to celebrate this 42nd anniversary by focusing on the successes of the Sandinista government. And to help us do that, we are joined live from Managua by our very special guest, Yvonne Acosta. He is the Minister of Finance and Public Credit, who by the way was placed under targeted sanctions by the U.S. Treasury May of 2020. I first heard Minister Acosta speak a few weeks ago when he presented the National Plan Against Poverty and Promotion of Human Development. I have asked him to join us today to present one part of his discussion that I found particularly interesting and wanted to share with all of you. So welcome, Minister Acosta. It's such an honor to have you with us this afternoon. And I'm so pleased that you had time to talk with us. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. It's a real pleasure to be here on such a creative program. Thank you very much for showing that graph, which sums up the hopes and the challenges for the Unicaraguan people, the economic agents, producers, and the governments. These are not only challenges for the government, but for the society and the country. Before delving into these 12 topics, we needed to remember what the country was like in 2006. And that is not really referred to in the public and political debates. There is a different narrative. The country which President Ortega received on the 10th of January, 2007, was a country of blackouts. Blackouts happened where there was electricity and 50% of the population had no electricity. The country was turning its back on the rural communities and on the Caribbean. The indigenous people and the people of African descent did not exist. There wasn't a logic of incorporating or serving the autonomous peoples by means of public policies. The campesinos had been left behind as well as the producers due to the privatization of the national bank and practically its disappearance. There was no financing. There were no credits. There were no roads. There was no energy. There was no drinking water. And social indicators such as infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate, were in terrible condition. The figures were similar to those we see today, unfortunately, in a few Latin American countries, which are generally the countries that resort to the World Bank's IDA programs, which are clearly identified. Therefore, those 16 and 17 years of neoliberalism meant privatization of public services. In terms of education, the country was condemned to having only four grades in primary school. The health care system was also privatized. It was a country with no social investment, a lack of public investment, and that translated in only 50% of electrical coverage and many blackouts because there was no capacity to generate electricity. And out of the 2,000 kilometers of road, only 30% was in regular condition. The lack of drinking water and sanitation, there was a great deficit in telecommunications. And the country's poverty figures experienced a turning point. And they were turning into the worst figures in Latin America from 2002 to 2005. It went from 45% to 48.3%. When it comes to general poverty and extreme poverty was reaching 17.2%. So the country with definitely a small economy had no public policies that indicated a change in direction. In fact, poverty was worsening. And the neoliberal government was proud because they said that they would bring foreign investment, the $243 million in foreign investment, were not enough, there were not enough jobs. And public investment barely surpassed $270 million. There were no resources in public policy, not even to provide primary school children with a glass of milk. So the neoliberal model was a disaster and we put an end to that on the 10th of January. Fortunately, we didn't experience a pandemic in 2004, 2005 or 2006 because it would have been very difficult to deal with that situation considering how the public services had been destroyed. Secondly, it's important to talk about what the government of Nicaragua under the leadership of Commander Rotega has done to change the situation of the country. So in the first place, all social and public services have been deprivatized. It's important to create public services to ensure free education and healthcare for our people. In the second place, public and economic policies need to center on the poorest. The main priority has to be the fight against poverty and extreme poverty. Successful public policies are not only those which make the economy grow or the foreign reserves grow or which ensure macroeconomic stability, but also those which ensure that most of the population improves continuously on a daily basis. So they need to be meaningful and valuable for the people. Governments need to be meaningful for their citizens and that is done by giving back through resources and policies to the largest majorities. For instance, during the government of Commander Rotega, we managed to double more than 100% of the kilometers of road that were built, but we also ensured that 85% of roads are in a good condition and that makes us the country with the best roads in Central America. We need to remember that we are the smallest economy in Central America but we have the best roads. From 2007, we also managed to build the most modern and developed healthcare system in Central America by bringing investments in technology, improving the hospital infrastructure by hiring physicians and healthcare staff to take care of people. We also made quick progress in providing water and sanitation. We went from 60% to 91% in urban sectors in terms of drinking water and we went from 30% to 57%, almost 60% in terms of sanitation and those are issues which are relevant for people's lives. That is not only for the political and business minorities but for the largest majority but I think that the most important change in direction implemented by Commander Rotega was making public education free at the primary, secondary and university levels making sure that our education system was coherent. As of the 10th of January 2007, making sure that 100,000 students went back to school by providing free education apart from free healthcare. But for the country to grow and to experience an extraordinary decade in social and economic terms it was necessary to invest not only in roads and energy but in capitalizing the rural communities. We mobilized 275,000 productive vouchers for women in charge of families in the rural sector, the productive food voucher. So we capitalized the small rural production. We developed the zero-usery program and granted more than 1,300,000 credits to women to breach the gender equality gap. Therefore the government had extraordinary figures as well in terms of maternal mortality rate. It decreased by 67%. We went from 95 women who died every 100,000 to 35. And let us not forget that maternal deaths represent a lack of public policies because having a child is not a disease. So that represents a deficit in public policies. And we achieved a 67% decrease in that. And those are great challenges. Therefore the country became more equal. There was greater participation. We implemented public policies focusing on the recovery of our productive capabilities. We managed to increase agricultural and livestock production by 75% and agricultural production by 85%. We doubled the size of the economy going from 6.5 billion to 13.7 billion in the span of 10 years. But what's most important is how this was translated into the largest majorities. And we managed to reduce general poverty from 48.3% to 24.9%. And extreme poverty from 17.6% to 6.9%. And these are extraordinary figures. And this was achieved with a social stability, consensus and dialogue and political stability. It was a decade characterized by social, political and economic progress. We didn't want to center only on the economic aspects as it happens in some countries. We wanted to make sure that the economic progress reflects positively on people's well-being. So we came to the conclusion that 2018 was an expression of hate by some minorities given the progress the country was experiencing and that had a great impact. The failed coup d'etat attempt had an impact that was equivalent to 52 hurricanes similar to Hurricane Ayota in terms of its impact and the damage it caused. And it had such a great impact that the failed coup d'etat attempt caused a more severe damage than the global pandemic in Nicaragua. And that is extraordinary when you take a look at the figures. 24 billion against 4 billion. So it's like six times more damaging. And I think that shows the reason and something that is worth condemning which is destroying the country's capabilities for the poorest. So in that context, we developed this national plan against poverty and for human development. And we include these 12 guidelines which are basically the hopes to breach certain gaps. We've had some progress, but there are still some important gaps. Then reinforcing the government's efforts in the fight against poverty. And also the hope of eradicating extreme poverty. No government, no society should have extreme poverty. Population with less than $1.25 per day. So we summarized all that in this graph that you're seeing on the screen. What are the relevant topics? Well, definitely the macroeconomic stability is something that we have to continue working on. We are a country that managed to develop a solid strategy in terms of public finances, sustainability, improving its balance sheets, reinforcing its reserves, having a sustainable indebtment strategy which allows to lay the necessary groundwork to attract more private investment. And in a strategic way, foreign direct investment that allows to create the jobs that the country needs and that it also has a positive effect on the income and the salary of the Nicaraguan people. We also thought about improving the basic conditions for development by providing people with electricity, by building roads and bridges, by accelerating the provision of water and sanitation to the population, by ensuring strategic investment for the ports in the Caribbean, by attracting investments for our railroads and we are studying if it can be electrical with Korea, investing in a strategic riverside in the Pacific that allows us to develop a tourist hub in the Nicaraguan Pacific coast, ensuring that the rate competitiveness matrix is a reality to attract more investment and foster the agricultural and livestock industry to create the necessary jobs, to continue working on healthcare and education, to strengthen our gender equality strategy. We are proud of the effort the country has made to be among the first five countries according to the World Economic Forum, only surpassed by four Nordic countries and in order to do that we need to capitalize and invest in bridging the gender equality gap and strengthen women's role, not only to recognize women but also because the country needs it, if women represent 52% and they do not have equal participation then it will be more difficult to develop the country, women are leading figures not only in the political sector but also in a production and society they have influence over the family, so if the country wants to develop more quickly it needs to bridge its gender gap, also the rural and urban gap and the gap between the minorities and the majorities, we need to bridge all the gaps and create equality so that the country can develop quickly and do it in a balanced way for people to live better. Another strategic guideline that we have included is climate change, that we have linked to our productive matrix, we believe that we need to administer the water resources to recover the water basin that we need to reforest and to attract forestry investments which are strategic for the life of the country but we have to do this in an articulated way with the productivity matrix because the agents of this change are the more than 300,000 producers or rural producers and we've noticed that the positive effects from climate change derive from the successes that we have when fighting against rural poverty and when transforming the agricultural and livestock sector because if the rural sector becomes wealthier then that will be harmonious with nature because they can produce more in a better way by providing a better quality of life to the rural sector and that translates into having better water, better forests, more diversification and above all more oxygen so that the economy, the rural economy can work. I think that's essential and lastly I would like to talk about a topic that I think is worth highlighting because I am from the Caribbean coast and I would like to highlight this that we have designed a strategy to implement a special development area in the Caribbean coast given that the Caribbean coast has always aspired to be the connection point to the Caribbean to the North American Caribbean and the South and Europe but we are one of the few countries which have a Caribbean coast with no ports so we are planning the construction of a port near Bluefield in that area that will allow for the development of the autonomous region which comprises 38,000 square kilometers which is equivalent to 1.70 percent of the size of El Salvador so it's almost twice the size of El Salvador and we have recognized 23 territories of indigenous peoples and the government of Commander Rotega has given the Caribbean region the largest public investment stock in history we're talking about electricity, road connections, airports, hospitals in the furthest municipalities ensuring energy for the rural sector mainly solar energy and also providing water and sanitation to all the municipalities and I think this is a great act of historic justice by the country towards the ethnic minorities that had been excluded for a long time until the 1979 Sandinista revolution and it was a topic that gained popularity after the autonomy act was adopted in 1987 so with this investment the Caribbean coastal experience a strategic transformation the quality of life of ethnic minorities will increase but this will also contribute to the development of the country so this national plan against poverty and for human development is a summary of the aspirations of the indigenous and the Nicaraguan people so I think I've given you a quick summary of all of this and it's been a great opportunity to share this national plan against poverty. Thank you so much Minister Acosta for this fabulous presentation it's very very inspiring it's very ambitious and it's also in my personal experience been very successful with the exception of the setbacks that your country incurred with the coup attempt in April of 2018 two horrific hurricanes fall of 2020 and on top of the COVID-19 pandemic I was in Nicaragua I spent all of March in your country it was an honor to be there wonderful people I have to say it was really felt quiet at home among you and your countrymen I wonder I well before I ask you this question I just would like the audience to know that the Nicaraguan people love their country they very much support this vision that Minister Acosta has presented to you and the thing that made the biggest impression to me in March and then of course hearing the present Minister Acosta's presentation last week is that this plan this human and economic development plan benefits the large large majority of the entire population it is not simply to the benefit of one demographic sector of the Nicaraguan populace it is a vision to develop and raise the vast majority of the of the Nicaraguan citizens and that and it's very it's very apparent when you spend you know time in the country one of the things that was mentioned in the presentation that maybe made a few of our a few members of our audience give some pause was the the idea of private investment and foreign direct investment and I wonder if you can explain to all of us how that is being cultivated and managed with the philosophy of San Dismo that is you know prevalent in your in your culture today yes the country has taken a leap of quality in terms of the design the management the implementation and the use of financial resources from bilateral development financing and multilateral financing to the point in which Nicaragua is the most recognized country by multilateral banks in terms of its accountability its management and use of funds we've had enormous results they are public they are on the documents by the World Bank the IDP the Central American Bank for economic integration the European investment bank we have an incredible record of recognition and if a country manages well designs well uses well and is accountable then the number of projects grows rapidly and that has allowed us to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in energy to provide that 46 percent which had never had electrical connection with electricity it is it is probably the shortest time span I mean eight years for the second half of a country to get electricity and it's the second farthest half because it's a rural community and we've also made progress in terms of roads productive investments drinking water and that creates a gross capital stock that is good for the country that improves the country's competitiveness conditions and that's a necessary groundwork to make sure that we reduce transaction costs in the economy for the whole economy for the small producer and the big producer to have roads with electricity and drinking water that benefits everyone not just one sector everyone will benefit from the positive impact of reducing transaction costs therefore when it comes to attracting or bringing in resources for public investment that starts with a good design and good management but it is necessary to implement the program well and to be accountable to the resources from our partners from banks from multilateral cooperation and that creates a virtuous cycle because one has a good performance and one receives resources and creates a positive impact and this variable is very important for foreign direct investment because if a business person is in Australia or in New Zealand he or she doesn't know the country so the business person takes a look at the most important economic indicators and he probably considers the level of competitiveness of the country whether the roads are in good condition or not whether the rates are competitive or not and if the country and the government are committed to investing enough resources to make the country more competitive and allow for crowding of resources so probably the business person takes a look at the IMF or central bank indicators and takes a look at the macroeconomic stability levels fiscal discipline the sustainability of economic and financial policies he or she will surely take a look at the results in terms of legal safety and investment safety therefore without having been to the country because he or she lives far away the business person can continue to invest and in this way we've received important investments in mining and renewable energy in energy in general investments in the agricultural sector it's one of the most successful free trade zones in Latin America it has doubled the number of jobs in the last few years so we think that public investment together with macroeconomic stability and economic indexes strategically contribute to creating trust and to giving it meaning but there is another variable in Central America from the northern triangle to Mexico that's probably the most violent area which is not at war so when you find a country that is well established and which has a public safety strategy a contention wall for its neighbors in the south and for the northern triangle which creates a safe shelter for investment a downward rate in terms of the number of homicides every 100,000 inhabitants it is the safest country in Central America we have the lowest amount of homicides every 100,000 inhabitants there are no kidnappings and even vehicle theft which is famous in countries that are close by that doesn't exist in Nicaragua the last case was 10 or 11 years ago so for instance migration if one takes a look at the outflow index of people who leave Central America for the United States it's very strange to find a Nicaraguan person so that can only be the result of a set of public policies which are attractive to foreign investment it's a safe country a very nice country with a low cost close to the beaches close to volcanic lakes with great economic stability and a public policy aimed at providing the country with social cohesion investment in education deluxe hospitals for the population and maybe you have had the chance to visit the Fernando Verespais hospital which is probably a better hospital than most private hospitals in Central America there are extraordinary private hospitals throughout Central America which generally are funded by North American investments but when it comes to a country with such a small economy it should be recognized that we are developing and carrying out public policies aimed at a strategic goal which is strategic for all countries reducing poverty and eradicating extreme poverty so I think that having good public policies economic stability safety and public investment is very attractive to foreign direct investment I have to say one yes it was in the health care system while they're in March and it's one of the most efficient experiences I've had in my entire life and the care is very high level of professionalism and effective it was a very positive experience I also want to mention to the audience well one when the minister is talking about the northern triangle he's referring specifically to Guatemala Salvador and Honduras which I think many of you watching know how much migration comes from those three countries and that many of the root causes of migration are due to this neoliberal economic model placed on those three countries by the United States also I should share with the audience and with you minister Acosta while in your country in March which I will say was the sixth time I've been to Nicaragua since 1984 and I was there for the first time July 19th 1984 the most common thing we heard and we heard this throughout the country we were in Managua we were in Estelillo and Nortega and Birwi was that people would say we don't have a lot but life is good here and when they mention when they say life is good here they mean life is stable it's economically stable there's physical stability and security and no reason to leave people love their country and when they say we don't have a lot well that refers to what the minister has been talking with us today about the development of the economy for the vast majority of the citizens and people are really enthusiastic about this they're very very enthusiastic and they're happy to talk about it also the road system I would argue is is not simply the best in Central America I think it's the best in the Americas including the United States it's a fantastic infrastructure project and the roads are incredibly well built and well maintained so I wonder you know before I let you go this afternoon if we could talk a little bit about the government's decision to leave the economy open during the pandemic it's thriving there and I can say that through personal experience so the decision to leave the economy open and also just for the audience to know when the minister was speaking about foreign loan and having a good you know a good reputation on paper and on field performance Nicaragua has outperformed on most measuring variables has outperformed IMF loan requirements until until the United States government has manipulated those statistics when introducing the Renus Air Act in the Senate and the Congress but it's really really important for all of you to understand that this government and and its financial leaders have outperformed the requirements of the IMF specifically but other foreign investment firms as well and that and that's really credit to you Mr Acosta and and and the and the people helping you implement to secure foreign investment and and implement your projects and it's that foreign investment that the Renus Air Act is going to attempt to block and so you and so I just think it's so important for all of you watching today to really understand this project that minister Acosta has talked to us about how exciting it is how positive it is and how it benefits the vast vast majority of Nicaraguan citizens and so um so before we go please talk to us about the decision to keep the economy open and also I guess one other thing to comment on is is food sovereignty you mentioned the development and the procuring secure economic security for the 300 000 rural food producers Nicaragua's 95 food sovereign which is an impressive statistic so so if you could comment on those two on those two variables before before I let you go that would be wonderful thank you very much of course so firstly the decision to keep the economy working back in April 2020 is the result of a multivariable analysis of a strategic decision-making matrix in the first place Nicaragua is a country which has a great rural community almost half of the population lives in small rural municipalities therefore the risk of infection is low practically non-existent because people live a hundred meters away from each other families meet at parks there is no overcrowding in many municipalities the second factor is a social and economic one there is a large popular or informal economy in which people live on a daily basis out of what they can do at popular markets in the agricultural sector in the transportation sector therefore closing the economy would paralyze their livelihoods to live on a daily basis the third element had to do with the fact that if 99.9 percent of countries decided to close then we didn't have to because we wouldn't receive people from abroad and the fourth element had to do with the fact that it was necessary to strengthen and reinforce the healthcare system you can take all the necessary measures social distancing hand washing wearing masks but if your healthcare system is not strong and that is something that is seen in many developing countries there may be a collapse and when we took a look at the figures we saw that from 2007 the hospital investment stock had grown quickly during my presentation I said that it went from 3 billion quarter bus to almost 17 billion furthermore the medical staff was increased by 140 percent and the healthcare staff by 60 percent so there was an important public healthcare infrastructure throughout the country 1333 healthcare stations people had access to healthcare at their doorstep great changes were made the voluntary network was reinforced to perform these five million visits there are a bit more than 1.2 1.3 million houses and we made five million visits so we analyzed our risks to continue strengthening the healthcare system to have the ICUs the ventilators but we also needed to make sure that the rest of the country apart from not getting the virus could get the resources they needed could continue working and in the first review conducted by the IMF it was said that the economy was losing between 11 and 14 percent and that is a disaster that happened in many countries and we said okay so in those conditions we need to strengthen the healthcare system we need to visit people accompany them educate them but we also need to protect the rest of the population and by this we mean that they need to be working actively and apparently we were right because a few months later all the country started opening their economies bit by bit so we managed to reduce that estimation that forecast by the IMF of between 11 and 14 to minus 2 percent so we prevented a great damage to the economy by carrying out matrix analysis based on the reality but there is something else we think that being able to take care of the people quickly so that the healthcare system doesn't collapse to continue providing services was key to not experiencing the situation that happened in South America where hospitals were collapsing due to overcrowding so we were able to say we have the capabilities to provide public healthcare to people we are ready and we probably have the best family and community healthcare model surely the best one in Central America and there are Caribbean countries with great healthcare systems but we have the best one in terms of its response because our healthcare system it centers on the epidemiological subject that many countries have left behind there may be good hospitals which are great at treating strokes or cancer but they have left their epidemiological policies aside as if it were something from the previous century so by having those capabilities we discussed with the different officials from the financial and the healthcare sector and we decided that we could reinforce the healthcare system while at the same time having the economic activity as a priority and we've had extraordinary results and we're probably the alleged American country with the lowest number of cases or with the lowest fatality rate and we are quickly reactivating our economy last year the economy experienced a minus two percent decrease which was one of the lowest GDP falls and we are now recovering by five percent more than what was forecast for 2021 and I think that the producers linked to agricultural exports should be given credit because we continued to export coffee sugar cane meat seafood beans to Central America and the all the economic agents continued working while at the same time taking care of themselves and allowing for the economy to continue working because if the economy doesn't work we won't have resources to continue reinforcing the healthcare system if I don't have resources how can I import expensive medications that have gone up by 500 percent we needed to have resources to get face masks so having identified a way of maintaining these two topics as a priority has given great results and secondly you mentioned our production policies reinforcing exports food safety and how to make progress towards food sovereignty in Latin America even though many countries have an agricultural industry Nicaragua is one of the countries in which most of what's on the table is produced nationally. Nicaragua is similar to Mexico in the sense that people eat rice beans meat chicken at a high rate but none is as well and all that is produced in the country here and there are incentives to produce and to have consumption 80 percent of the consumption is produced nationally but what's important is to increase productivity so that we can fulfill the needs of the local market and also reach the markets in neighboring countries as is the case of our beans our milk our cheese because that creates wealth for the rural producers and for the country we are the greatest meat producer in Central America and I think that in the future we will be one of the benchmarks due to the quality and the safety of our meat and also because we are very close to the markets so in terms of logistics prices are better the United States is a great consumer of Nicaraguan meat in the south of the country in Florida therefore if we increase productivity if we have the necessary technical assistance if we manage to have financing for the productive matrix platform that will ensure food sovereignty but that will also allow us to reach more and better markets in Central America in Mexico in the United States Canada but that's why we talked about Caribbean port because we are facing Europe and we don't sell much to Europe we're also close to the Pacific and we don't sell much to Asia and we also don't export much to South America therefore we want to achieve greater productivity in the agricultural sector greater competitiveness by means of ports airports so that our national production can enter more and better markets and that will have a positive result which is food safety and sovereignty. Well what an exciting vision for your people and your country it's fantastic and I'm so I'm happy to say I was able to experience it earlier this year and I'm so thankful minister Acosta that you've been able to join us today and share this vision the success of this project with with our audience it's really been an honor to have you with us today and I just really want to extend a happy July 19 to you and your countrymen and a wish for your continued success and also want to let our audience know that you can specifically assist in keeping the United States regime chain efforts out of Nicaragua and allow the Nicaraguans to maintain their sovereignty and continue to grow their country in their own vision by helping stop the renaissance act in both the senate and in congress I would encourage you to contact code pink.org for that and also the nicaragua network at afgg.org to learn more about that and also everyone please be sure to catch code pinks what the f is going on in Latin America every Wednesday, 4 30 p.m pacific, 7 30 p.m eastern on code pink youtube and again minister Acosta an honor to have your time this afternoon our pleasure to be in conversation with you and I hope we can do it again. Thank you very much. It really does have a suggestive name. Sounds better in English. What the earth is going on in Latin America? It's excellent. That's probably true so okay everyone thanks again for joining us and we'll see you next week.