The downfall of Dante Musi, the banker who helped Daniel Ortega from Central American Bank | international

Honduran Dante Musi was not re-elected as president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) on Friday in the Dominican Republic, where the bank’s governors held a meeting to discuss, among other things, the continuation of an official for another five years in charge. The decision was particularly celebrated by opponents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, who referred to Musi as “the chief financier of the dictatorship” in Nicaragua.

“That Musi is not re-elected is certainly an important victory for the Nicaraguan cause, because the dictatorship loses an important ally in access to resources,” Juan Sebastian Chamorro, a Nicaraguan economist and exiled political prisoner, told EL PAÍS. However, it is significant that this change in president leads to a change in the allocation of resources by CABEI. A bank policy change is needed to reorganize its procedures, based on what it was originally designed for. We still have to make sure that the Bank will not continue to fund the dictatorship as discretionary as it has.”

For weeks before the appointment of the rulers of the Dominican Republic, Moussi’s continuity in the presidency of CABEI was torpedoed by a torpedo of criticism for the financial support during his rule of authoritarian governments in the isthmus, which violated human rights. And also because of the ambiguity in the management of resources and the increase in administrative expenses of the bank.

In the past five years, the Nicaraguan Council has funded the Nicaraguan system to the tune of $3,513 million, which represents the state’s annual budget. As a result of human rights abuses in 2018, Ortega-Murilos has suffered international isolation and a host of international sanctions that include freezing loans from other multilateral parties, such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank. (Why). But Moussa ignored that and boasted of his relationship with the presidential couple, who have been accused by a group of United Nations experts of committing crimes against humanity.

Dictatorship must continue in isolation. Funding channels must be closed. So the injury towards CABEI does not end here. Moses reassured 3,500 million for the dictatorship. We must make sure that the bank, under its new chairman, acts in accordance with standards of respect for human rights,” insisted Felix Maradiaga, also an exiled political prisoner.

Former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla celebrated the decision of the GCC rulers. Under Musi’s tutelage, he asserts, the bank has become “the international partner of choice for the dictatorship that rules Nicaragua so badly.”

“The excessive financing that allowed the Ortega Murillo regime to sustain itself was introduced, as well as the acquisition of resources that it did not have adequate oversight mechanisms to implement. In this way, as a Central American, I celebrate this decision not to re-elect the current president of CABEI. We are in a time It requires CABEI to raise capital to help countries in the region, but with guarantees of serious and effective governance.CABEI is required without blind political alliances with regimes like Nicaragua.”It is clear that the current president has not guaranteed these kinds of conditions,” Chinchilla said.

Another three months in office

Mousi will remain in office for another three months, until next November, when there should already be a replacement for the heads and powers of CABEI. Introducing the opening remarks to the LXIII Board of Governors, Moussi proposed the creation of the CABEI Group, in the same way as the World Bank Group, so that countries could benefit from their loans, benefiting from the Bank’s good credit rating. He also proposed asking for a new capital increase, and although he did not mention it directly, he sought re-election.

Although they did not disclose which countries opposed the continuation of Musi, Eduardo Trejos Lalli, former director of CABEI and until May 2022 representative of Costa Rica in the financial institution, told EL PAÍS that there were three sides in the board of governors: “There was the sector that was promoting To re-elect him. I don’t know who they are, but I can imagine them. The other side was totally against the continuity of Moses. Moreover, they were trying to remove him immediately so that he would not continue to harm the bank. And the other side that informed Moses that he would no longer be president when his term ended The other information I got was that they also required a three month advance before they left and that seemed to prevail in the end.

Trejos emphasized that against Mossi he also played against the bank’s indices, which collapsed under his management. Which is why we, many managers, took on the task of informing our governors a year ago that the Bank was not on the right track. And drastic measures had to be taken to improve it. From there, in all likelihood, came Mossy’s need to try to boost capitalization, but in the current circumstances that the bank is in, until it gets fixed, it’s like throwing water in a basket,” Trejos explains.

On March 16 of this year, during a debate held by the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, Musi said that in order to finance the regime of Ortega and Murillo, his “politics do not matter” if the money reaches citizens with basic needs, which guides the projects. “This is what we focus on, so we put politics aside,” the official said. In addition, he emphasized that Cabi does not give “checks to Daniel Ortega”, but rather does them on projects and development plans, such as access to basic services, hospitals and roads. “We are working for Nicaragua, not for the president (Ortega),” Musi said.

However, Trejos asserts that CABEI has distinguished itself for decades by creating development projects that are long-term and at a good rate. “Projects that have a really profound impact on the Central American region, which require both ports, airports, highways, hospitals… very important infrastructure that, if properly implemented, will change the dynamics of a country. And one of the worst experiences we have is that of President Moussi. He decided to create different mechanisms to finance the countries’ current spending. This is not the historical concept that we had inside the Bank,” explains Trejos.

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