The United States Government has granted Nicaragua the so-called "property waiver".
Expressing its concern at the deterioration of the rule of law in Nicaragua, and the 337 cases of claims by American citizens that their property had been confiscated, the United States today approved a so called property waiver, which in practice means that it will support international agencies which the Nicaraguan government seeks loans from.
Nicaragua is ranked 123 out of 130 countries included in the latest International Right to Property Index by the NGO Americans Tax Reform.
Writing in Laprensa.com.ni, Luis Sanchez Sancho analyzes a particular case of the many that are currently being aired on Nicaragua property rights.
Sanchez says:
"The regime of Daniel Ortega has been troubling, obviously, in the resolution, or the appearance of a resolution, to the problems of property of U.S. citizens which were seized by the Sandinista revolution, so that the United States grants the waiver or its annual exemption for access to concessional loans from international financial organizations. But Nicaraguans who are not U.S. citizens, as well as foreigners of other nationalities, are entitled to have their properties return or be paid compensation and to the right to not suffer further confiscations or arbitrar expropriations as happened recently in the case of Punta Teonoste, group Panica, the Martinez family and many others.
The Chamber of Information and Communication Technologies and the American Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce have requested that the bill be vetoed by President Chinchilla.
An article in Elfinancierocr.com echoes the troubles caused by the adoption of the law which "allows without sanction copying of music CDs and movies or counterfeit software", in the national and creative sectors, and in the union that groups together American companies in the country.
Starting May 1st, the National Registry of Costa Rica will offer a property alert service which will give owners greater control of their assets.
The service is called Alert Registry and will be available to owners of personal property (vehicles) and real estate (land). The annual fee to receive notices is $15 per year (7700 ¢) for each of the properties you want to put under surveillance.
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.
The Costa Rican National Registry has started using a modern cadastral map for certifying property deeds which will provide greater security for people buying land.
Deeds will include two aerial views of the property or land, reports The Costa Rica News website.
The new maps include names, plot numbers, and district or cantons divisions, among other features.
Greater respect for property rights leads to faster economic development
The order of the countries in the 2011 International Property Rights Index (IPRI) report is less important than the conclusions that are possible to obtain by analyzing correlations between the parameters that comprise the index and economic development.
The 2011 report highlights the overwhelmingly positive relationship between economic prosperity, measured by per capita GDP, and the protection of intellectual and physical property rights.