Nicaragua 1998

Nicaragua Capital

In 1998, Nicaragua was a small but developing country located in Central America. It had a population of around 4.9 million people and its capital city was Managua. The economy of Nicaragua in 1998 was largely based on agriculture with its main exports including coffee, sugarcane, bananas and seafood whilst imports included machinery and transport equipment. In terms of infrastructure, Nicaragua had a limited transportation network with well-maintained roads and airports as well as access to international shipping routes. Education levels were low with most children attending school until at least age 16. Health care was also poor with limited access to public health services available to most people. Despite its small size, Nicaragua is renowned for its diverse landscapes ranging from mountains to beaches as well as its vibrant cities such as Granada which are filled with art galleries, museums and parks. See dentistrymyth for Nicaragua in the year of 2015.

Yearbook 1998

Nicaragua. According to Countryaah, the capital of Nicaragua is Managua. Former President and current leader of the Sandinist Party, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), Daniel Ortega struggled during the year for his honor after his stepdaughter accused him of sex abuse. The accusations created severe political contradictions. Ortega claimed that he was subjected to a riot by political opponents, and his confidence in him seemed to be firm in the Sandinist Party. In May, he was re-elected as FSLN’s leader.

In February, 3,000 doctors went on a protracted strike and demanded substantial pay raises. After a month, the government declared the strike illegal and dismissed the majority of the strikers. In June, a settlement was reached which included, among other things. contained a hundred percent pay raise.

During the year, the Paris Club granted Nicaragua considerable debt relief since the country has succeeded in meeting large parts of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) requirements for the restructuring of the economy.

In elections in the autonomous Atlantic coast in March, the ruling Liberal Partido Liberal Constitutionalist (PLC) received the most votes after a very low turnout, only 57%.

The violent forest and grass fires that ravaged Central America also hit Nicaragua and reached its peak in May/ June when the capital of Managua’s international airport was closed during periods. The fires occurred as a result of the most severe drought in 70 years in combination with the weather phenomenon of El Niño. In October, Nicaragua was hit by one of the country’s most severe natural disasters when Hurricane Mitch emerged. At least 1,300 people were killed, most in an area in the northwest by the Casitas volcano, which was hit by a large landslide.

  • Abbreviationfinder: What does NIC stand for in geography? Here, this 3 letter acronym refers to the country of Nicaragua.

Economic conditions

Nicaragua is a very poor and backward country, with significant socio-economic disparities and with a marked gap between the peaceful regions, where natural conditions are more favorable and where the major centers and main productive activities are located, and the Atlantic regions, characterized by bad climatic conditions, sparsely populated and poor. After the end of the Sandinista regime, the governments that succeeded each other at the helm of the Nicaragua tried (in particular starting from 1997) to proceed with an economic restructuring, fighting the very high inflation with drastic measures and trying to relaunch the stagnant production situation; the country however, which suffers from severe structural disadvantages (vulnerability to meteorological and climatic phenomena, severe lack of infrastructure, poor qualification of the workforce), it continues to depend heavily on international aid.

Primary activities produce 17% of GDP and make up most of the exports (coffee, sugar cane, bananas, tobacco), alongside subsistence crops (corn, beans, rice). The livestock sector (mainly cattle) is mainly developed in the mountainous areas of the interior. Forest resources (rubber tree and precious woods) are also intensively exploited. Nicaragua owns mines of gold, silver, copper and iron, whose productions remain weak however and contribute only marginally to the formation of the GDP. Water resources are also not fully utilized and Nicaragua depends on oil imports for energy production. The very little diversified industrial activities are linked above all to agriculture. Tourism is still a marginal sector, but it has significant growth prospects. After the end of the embargo, the main trading partners returned to be the USA, followed by Central American countries. Since 2005 the customs union between Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

The road network (19,000 km of which 2,100 are asphalted), which is more developed on the Pacific coast, is insufficient for the needs of the country; the Carretera Panamericana, which constitutes its backbone, crosses the country from N to S in the western part. Main ports are, also on the Pacific coast, Corinth and San Juan del Sur. In December 2014, work began on the construction – entrusted to a consortium based in Hong Kong – of an alternative waterway to that of Panama.

December

Controversial law adopted

December 21st

Parliament adopts a law which, according to critics, aims to prevent opposition politicians from participating in the 2021. Election. It excludes people who “ask for or support sanctions against the Nicaraguan state” from participating in the election. Furthermore, it prevents people who support a coup, changes the constitution, encourages foreign interference or finances foreign powers that plan terrorist acts or destabilization. President Daniel Ortega is expected to run for a fourth term in the November election.

November

Another hurricane pulls in

16 November

Hurricane Iota pulls in from the Caribbean, just two weeks after the previous hurricane, Eta, during what has been a record year for the number of named tropical cyclones in the Atlantic. Iota is also the first to reach category 5, the highest on the scale measuring hurricane strength. Eta, which also affected Central America, was a Category 4 hurricane. The two hurricanes have affected millions of people, mainly in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. Tens have died, hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes, and major damage has been done to buildings, arable land and infrastructure.

Nicaragua Capital