The Attorney General has invited U.S. citizens with outstanding property claims, to present their cases to a process that it advertises as fast.
The Nicaraguan Government is seeking to resolve in the short term all cases or property disputes that exist with U.S. and in through this dispel the usual objections for it not being granted a Waiver of Property by the U.S. government.
Nicaragua's government is trying to calm fears among businesses after the release of a report covering the pending property claims of U.S. citizens, without which bilateral and multilateral U.S aid may be jeopardized.
From June 2011 to date, the government has been attending to about 64 claims by U.S. citizens who had their property seized in the 80s, having already solved about 25 cases, according to a report from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) released to Members of the Council of Private Enterprise, COSEP.
After a year of negotiations, the government of Nicaragua decided to drop its lawsuit against the Spanish consortium.
The government had sued the hotel group Barceló in an international court for noncompliance of a contract to purchase a resort on the Pacific coast.
Prensa.com interviewed the prosecutor Hernán Estrada: “Nicaragua will form a partnership with the Spanish group as the majority partner in the tourist complex Montelimar Resort & Casino.”
The state of Nicaragua is suing Grupo Barceló for 30 million dollars, in a process that will go for arbitration before the International Center for Settling Differences Relative to Investments.
Although Barceló threatened to take the case to the international settlement center weeks ago, in the end it was the State of Nicaragua that took the initiative on arbitration.
The Spanish consortium Barceló, owner of Hotel Montelimar in Managua, wants to resolve its differences with the government through international arbitration.
The government, through its Justice Department, insists that Barceló owes three million dollars for commitments made in its privatization contract.
Representatives of the Spanish company were to meet this afternoon with officials from the Superior Board of Private Enterprise and the National Tourism Chamber. They will officially state their case for seeking international arbitration at that meeting.
Spain's ambassador to Nicaragua, Antonio Pérez Hernández, voiced concern over the government's decision to impose a preventive embargo on the Spanish-owned hotel Barceló Playa Montelimar Resort & Casino.
The ambassador added, however, that he felt sure Barceló could prove to the authorities that it had done nothing wrong.
Nicaragua's Attorney-General's department advised that it has started a legal process to bring about the return of the Montelimar tourist complex, due to alleged non-fulfillment of the contract.
Attorney-General Hernán Estrada recently delivered the lawsuit to the third civil court of Managua. AFP confirmed that one of its sources says the precise date was not made public due to a gag order imposed by the hotel last May relatng to a debt linked to the contract.
The Nicaraguan government is "playing with fire" in its disputes with two Spanish companies, Unión Fenosa and Grupo Barceló, warned José Escalante, president of the Spain-Nicaragua Chamber of Commerce.
The government is expected to be sued by Fenosa, the nation's leading distributor of electricity in a dispute over the terms under which the state aims to take a 16 percent stake in the company's equity.