Nicaragua received $373.5 million worth of remittances originating from the United States in January 2025, the local newspaper La Prensa reported Monday.
The amount represented 83 percent of the $448.2 million in remittances received by Nicaragua that month. The remaining 17 percent mainly originated from Costa Rica and Spain, as well as Panama, Canada, Mexico, and El Salvador.
La Prensa, citing statistical information from the Central Bank of Nicaragua, stated in its report that, while the sum received in January was seven percent less than that received in December 2024, Nicaragua received $81.4 million more in January 2025 when compared to January 2024.
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The newspaper explained that Nicaragua received more in remittances in December mainly due to the holiday season as well as local school graduations and the New Year holiday, all of which usually led to an increase in the amount of money sent from abroad.
In recent years, Nicaragua began documenting a dramatic surge in remittances sent from abroad to local friends and relatives, overwhelmingly driven by Nicaraguans living in the United States. According to information published by the World Bank in December, remittances amounted to over 27 percent of Nicaragua’s entire Gross Domestic Product (GPD) during 2024.
“However, it is feared that the threat of mass deportations and the tightening of the immigration policy being promoted by President Donald Trump will reduce this source of foreign exchange,” La Prensa stated in its report, adding that the total received by the country in remittances “exceeds annual exports if sales under the general regime and those of the free trade zone are compared separately.”
It is estimated that at least 800,000 Nicaraguans, 11.8 percent of the nation’s entire 6.8 million inhabitants, have fled from their country since 2018 when communist dictator Daniel Ortega launched a still-ongoing brutal persecution campaign against anti-communist peaceful protesters and dissidents that left more than 300 people dead.
A report published in December by the Costa Rican-based NGO Fundación Puentes para el Desarrollo indicated that since Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007, family remittances to Nicaragua have increased sixfold, going from $740 million in 2007 to over $4.6 billion in 2023.
In 2024, Nicaragua broke a new record in the total remittances received by the country, breaching the $5 billion threshold for a total of $5.243 billion.
Of the yearly total received by Nicaragua in 2024, $4,340.2 billion, or 82.8 percent, originated from the United States. 7.5 percent of the remaining remittances received by Nicaragua during 2024 came from Costa Rica and 5.8 percent from Spain, with the rest of the transactions originating from other nations.
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“This growth, substantially higher than that recorded by other Central American countries, is mainly due to the increase in remittances from the United States, driven by a massive migration of Nicaraguans to that country in the same period,” the NGO said in its report.
The report pointed out that the surge in remittances has allowed dictator Daniel Ortega to “stabilize” the country’s ailing economy by increasing domestic revenues, mitigating external imbalances and strengthening international reserves while offsetting economic downturns caused by the 2018 wave of anti-communist protests and Ortega’s brutal repression, as well as downturns caused by the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
In 2023, a group of experts explained that, in addition to the increase in economic activities derived from the incoming foreign cash, Ortega also benefits politically from remittances, as it allows the dictator to “calm” internal social unrest by encouraging mass migration of Nicaraguans out of their country, who then send remittances to their friends and families from abroad.
The remittances, the experts stressed, end up serving as a “social policy” that boosts local commercial activity without Ortega having to “lift a finger.” Ortega also receives direct income from remittances through local taxation such as Value Added Tax (VAT), which helps the communist regime balance its budget expenses.
In addition to the benefits received by remittances sent from abroad, Ortega also launched a “weaponization” campaign of migrants against the United States in recent years, allowing U.S.-bound migrants to pass through its territory towards the U.S. southern border, charging “safe passage” fees and other “fines” to the migrants. The “fines” allowed the communist regime to overturn over a decade of continued fiscal deficit at the Managua International Airport in 2024.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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