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After a little more than 24 hours of closure for alleged “tax noncompliance,” the owners of the Morgan’s Rock Ecolodge regained control of the property on the afternoon of Friday, February 20, 2026. Sources linked to the business sector indicated that the period involved intense negotiations with the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI) and the Office of the Attorney General to resolve the State’s tax claim.
The terms of the agreement were not made public, but business sources indicated that the hotel will reopen to the public during the remainder of February and in March 2026.
The Reason for the Temporary Closure
On Thursday, February 19, 2026, the DGI ordered the hotel closed, alleging “tax noncompliance,” according to a notice posted on a sign at the entrance to the tourist site, located in a reserve along the coastal highway between San Juan del Sur and Tola. When carrying out the closure, regime officials removed the guests who were staying on the premises and proceeded to shut down the establishment.
In a message posted on its social media accounts while the closure was still in effect, the hotel administration explained that they were “in the process of finalizing agreements with the authorities of the Government of Nicaragua in order to resolve our fiscal matters.” No information was provided regarding the amount claimed or the periods allegedly owed.
According to business sources, Morgan’s Rock has been subject to at least five tax audits over the past years involving multimillion-dollar claims by the treasury. During the week, the owners had been negotiating the tax claims with the DGI and the Attorney General’s Office (PGJ), but the intervention took place on Thursday, February 19.
CONFIDENCIAL confirmed that Morgan’s Rock representatives were negotiating the tax claim with the Attorney General’s Office in order to recover the hotel and reopen it, as ultimately occurred.
“At no point have we been threatened with expropriation. Our objective is to resolve our obligations and to resume work as soon as possible in promoting Nicaragua as a world-class tourist destination,” the hotel administration stated.
“As investors, we are confident that we will soon be able to reopen our doors to the public. This is our sincere position, and any other communication or interpretation of events that seeks to undermine the peace and security of our beautiful country is unrelated to us. We suggest giving it no credence,” the statement added.
The hotel is located on a 1,600-hectare stretch of forest, nearly half of which forms part of a protected private reserve. This did not prevent part of the property from being included in the original design of the Interoceanic Canal whose concession was granted to Wang Jing in 2013.
The so-called San Lorenzo Bay (seven kilometers of coastline from Playa Maderas to Morgan’s Rock) was included in the canal route that would have been affected, but it was later removed following objections from landowners and residents in the area, as well as investors led by the hotel’s owner, Clemente Ponçon, who died in 2020.
Business leaders from different sectors of the national economy have consistently denounced ongoing campaigns of fiscal harassment by state tax authorities as well as by various municipal governments. This attitude — which they have dubbed “revenue voracity” — coincides with the sharp increase in tax collections, which in 2026 are expected to reach around 170 billion córdobas.
A source from the business sector told CONFIDENCIAL, on condition of anonymity, that the closure was “further proof of the harassment and extortion suffered by business owners in the country, and more evidence of the dictatorship’s hunger to seize valuable properties — in this case, a tourism product that has already become an icon of the national tourism industry.”
