Tourists must apply to customs for a permit to bring recording equipment or accessories, in what the opposition sees as a maneuver by Daniel Ortega so that the country’s serious crisis is not known.
The postcards of the visit to Nicaragua without the supervision of the authorities will be something impossible for tourists. The government has announced that it is restricting the entry of still or video cameras into the country. The measure means that permission can only be obtained per person for one piece of equipment and one pair of binoculars. In case of exceeding that amount, they must have a customs document that qualifies it as temporary admission.
The Customs Directorate has classified 140 equipment and 90 image accessories that must be approved by the government. Travelers are not allowed to bring any lamps, lenses, microphones, tripods or any other specific item that would present an obvious blow to audiovisual filmmakers and professional photographers.
The executive branch’s decision has been harshly criticized by journalists and documentarians who insist it is a way for the president, Daniel Ortega, to shut Nicaragua off from outside eyes. “It is trying to accentuate its political control and block or hinder the work of the media that arrive in the country and may deny the official story,” said the leader of the Organization of Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua, José Cardoza. , to the newspaper ‘Voice of America’.
Opponents of Ortega affirm that the collection of money that can be obtained from these commercial taxes is minimal and emphasize that the primary goal is to prevent the world from knowing the country’s deep social and economic crisis.
The new regulations also prohibit “the entry into national territory of night vision goggles, as they are intended solely for the use of the military and police”.
Since October last year, the work of documentalists in Nicaragua has been monitored. The Cinematheque, an agency dependent on the government, took power to “prohibit the development, exhibition and commercialization of audiovisual products”, in addition to allowing itself to confiscate material it considers illegal or considered harmful. In this way, Ortega’s cabinet wants to prevent foreign filmmakers from entering the country as tourists to capture the country’s less flattering reality.
Nicaragua has been trying to restore tourism for five years. The revolution that ended the dictatorship and a civil war that lasted ten years, until 1990, prevented it from opening up to the world. Inhabited by just over six million people, it topped the international charts as an emerging destination in the following decades. It is a country rich in biodiversity, with dozens of volcanoes, lakes, jungles, virgin beaches, nature reserves and colonial cities.
However, since 2021, tourism has plummeted by about 40%, according to data from the Central Bank of Nicaragua. At the moment it is in the last positions at the Latin American level, surpassed only by Honduras and Venezuela. The political situation, with several public complaints against Ortega for abuse of power, the arrest of dozens of political opponents, the lack of work and a major social and economic crisis caused at least 328,000 citizens to leave the country in 2022.
Source: La Verdad
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