The Superior Council for Private Enterprise (Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada, or COSEP) is a leading business chamber in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

. As of September 2020, its president is Michael Healy, elected to a three-year term. He succeeded José Adán Aguerri, who was COSEP’s President for 13 years. Historically COSEP has been the main organization of Nicaraguan big business, and in the late 20th century was composed of prosperous families from the Pacific coast cities, who dominated commerce and banking. During the

Sandinista revolution The Nicaraguan Revolution ( es, Revolución Nicaragüense or Revolución Popular Sandinista, link=no) encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation F ...

(1979–1990), COSEP opposed the Sandinistas’ economic policies. Later, in 1990 when the conservative candidate of the

National Opposition Union National Opposition Union ( es, Unión Nacional Opositora, UNO) was a Nicaraguan wide-range coalition of opposition parties formed to oppose president Daniel Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in the 1990 election. Its can ...

(UNO),

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro (; 18 October 1929) is a Nicaraguan politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. She was the first and, as of 2022, only woman to hold the position of president of Nicaragua. Born int ...

, defeated Sandinista

Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguans, Nicaraguan revolutionary and politician serving as President of Nicaragua since 2007. Previously he was leader of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as coordinator of the ...

for president, COSEP was part of the alliance of 14 opposition groups that made up UNO. When a more pragmatic approach allowed Ortega to be re-elected president in 2006, COSEP worked in cooperation with him. The arrangement, touted the “consensus model” of governance, is said to have led to Nicaragua having "the fastest-growing economy in Central America" and being a "poster child for foreign investment and citizen security in a region known for gangs and unrest". This ended in April 2018 when Ortega's unpopular decree to "unilaterally overhaul the social-security tax system" broke his arrangement with COSEP and precipitated bloody protests. COSEP subsequently joined the Civic Alliance, a broad coalition opposing the government. In October 2021, Healy and COSEP vice-president Álvaro Vargas were arrested on allegations of money laundering and terrorism under Law 1055, three weeks before the

2021 Nicaraguan general election General elections were held in Nicaragua on 7 November 2021 to elect the President, the National Assembly and members of the Central American Parliament. President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front sought re-election, ...

. Healy’s predecessor, José Adán Aguerri, a pre-candidate in the election for president of Nicaragua, has been held since June 2021 on similar charges, one of 37 opposition figures

’s administration has arrested.

Past and current presidents

File:José Adán Aguerri December 2018.jpg, José Adán Aguerri
2007-2020 File:Michael Healy May 2018.jpg, Michael Healy
2020-present

References

External links

Official website
(in Spanish) {{Authority control 2014–2018 Nicaraguan protests Chambers of commerce Nicaragua articles needing expert attention