The 2018–2022 Nicaraguan protests began on 18 April 2018 when demonstrators in several cities of Nicaragua began protests against the social security reforms decreed by President Daniel Ortega that increased taxes and decreased benefits. After five days of unrest in which nearly thirty people were killed, Ortega announced the cancellation of the reforms; however, the opposition has grown through the 2014–2018 Nicaraguan protests to denounce Ortega and demand his resignation, becoming one of the largest protests in his government's history and the deadliest civil conflict since the end of the Nicaraguan Revolution. On 29 September 2018, political demonstrations were declared illegal by President Ortega.
Background
Pensions for small contributors
The 2014–2018 Nicaraguan protests began in June 2013 when some elderly people with only a small contribution (less than 750 weeks) denounced a reduced pension from the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute. Soon, students and young people joined their protests. After a week of demonstration, the peaceful protesters were attacked by paramilitary groups associated with the Sandinista Youth, while police had moved back only moments before. Later, to calm down the protests, concessions to the pensioners were made by president Daniel Ortega to supply a reduced pension.
Proposed canal
Over a year later protests started again, this time opposing the construction of a proposed Chinese-funded inter-oceanic canal through Nicaragua, with environmental impact, land use, and indigenous rights, as well as Nicaraguan sovereignty among the chief concerns of demonstrators. By February 2018, the project was widely viewed as defunct, though a 60% absent vote to revoke the 2013 legislation creating the project, the Chinese company (HKND) granted the concession to develop the canal maintains legal rights to it as well as to ancillary infrastructure projects.
Forest fires
In early April 2018, demonstrators marched in Managua, the country's capital, to protest what they regarded as an insufficient government response to forest fires that burned 13,500 acres (5,500 hectares) of the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, a tropical nature preserve that is home to Rama and Kriol indigenous people, as well as significant biodiversity and endangered species. There were suspicions that the government had an interest in the fire, as it is the largest natural reserve through which the Nicaraguan Canal is planned to make. Counterprotests also occurred at the time in support of the Sandinista Front government.
INSS crisis
In 2013, the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute was in a deficit situation that had been growing annually, reaching 2,371 million Nicaraguan córdobas by the end of 2017. This deficit had increased by over 50% annually for the last two years. The IMF alerted Nicaragua in 2017 that in the absence of the reform, the cash reserves would be depleted by 2019. The government of Daniel Ortega prepared a reform plan for the INSS based on the IMF's report. The government rejected some of the proposed remedies, such as increasing the retirement age, arguing that older people have fewer possibilities of finding employment, and that the urgency of the reform required fast results to ensure the INSS's viability, as some measures suggested by the IMF would not yield results for three or four years.
In early April 2018, the Superior Council for Private Enterprise (COSEP) announced the start of negotiations with the government to reform the INSS, declaring that the solution must include an increase to the contribution of the employers and employees, as well as fiscal reform. These negotiations excluded small and medium-sized enterprises. The reforms were announced on 16 April 2018, and published by presidential decree in March 2018 in La Gaceta (official government record) on 18 April 2018. The reform included an incremental increase of 0.75% (from 6.25% to 7%) on the employee contribution and 2% (from 19% to 21%) on the employers, starting July 2018. The employers' contribution would increase annually until reaching 22.5% in 2020. Pensions would also be taxed 5%. The 5% tax has been criticized as unconstitutional, since only the National Assembly has the power of taxation, and Law 160, signed by Ortega, indicates that pensions are not subject to any retentions.
The government-aligned unions Workers' National Front and the Employees National Union supported the reform, while the COSEP rejected it, indicating it did not have consensus and filed a writ of amparo in an attempt to reverse it.