{"id":166075,"date":"2025-05-05T00:26:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T06:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/sin-categoria\/census-fails-in-nicaragua-4-3-million-spent-with-no-results\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T12:02:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T18:02:16","slug":"census-fails-in-nicaragua-4-3-million-spent-with-no-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/en\/english\/census-fails-in-nicaragua-4-3-million-spent-with-no-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Census Fails in Nicaragua: $4.3 Million Spent With No Results"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Opaque, delayed, and poorly organized. These words describe the execution of Nicaragua\u2019s National Population and Housing Census (Cepov), which had been underway for a full year as of April 30, 2025, with no results released, no clear information on its actual cost, and no transparency about how the money was spent. <\/p>\n\n

The Ortega regime has treated the Census as a state secret. Government spokesperson and self-proclaimed \u201cco-president\u201d Rosario Murillo \u2014 known for endlessly praising the government\u2019s so-called achievements \u2014 has only mentioned the Census twice: once when it began, and once more to declare it a \u201csuccess,\u201d according to CONFIDENCIAL\u2019s<\/strong> review of her daily speeches and broadcasts. <\/p>\n\n

“The Census is going ahead, we have already counted hundreds of thousands of homes. It is truly a success and, above all, a success in cultural terms, because we know that each one of these inquiries has to do with the information we need to support all our programs,” Murillo said in her May 8, 2024 soliloquy.<\/p>\n\n

From then on, there has been total silence from the regime’s spokeswoman. Not a single word has been said about the Census in her daily reports or her usual diatribes after the official activities. <\/p>\n\n

The secrecy has been such that, until May 4, 2025, the National Census of Nicaragua is still officially in progress because the dictatorship has not decreed its end. Initially the Cepov was to be executed in May 2024, but this period was extended de facto<\/em>, without the regime informing the reasons. <\/p>\n\n

“The opaque management of the census process generates strong suspicions<\/a>. The arbitrary decision to hide the financing, the progress and any detail of the Census only increases distrust,” warned Olga Valle L\u00f3pez, director of the citizen observatory Urnas Abiertas. <\/p>\n\n

Census nine years behind schedule<\/h2>\n\n

The 2024 National Census was conducted nine years late<\/a>, since -according to technical recommendations- it had to be executed in 2015.<\/p>\n\n

According to the observatory’s citizen networks, the 2024 National Census ended in January 2025. During those nine months, thousands of census enumerators walked the streets of the country wearing distinctive cream-colored vests and blue caps. They also used a digital tablet to record the population’s responses. <\/p>\n\n

Valle emphasized that “it is not common” for a census to take nine months and gave as an example the last Cepov carried out in Nicaragua, which lasted 14 days. This National Census was carried out under the government of President Enrique Bola\u00f1os (RIP), and took place between May 28 and June 11, 2005.<\/p>\n\n

“If we look at other recent examples, in Chile the 2024 population census took three months, despite the fact that its population is almost three times larger than that of Nicaragua. And in Mexico, with a population 19 times larger, the 2020 Census was executed in 25 days,” he detailed.<\/p>\n\n

For the researcher, the extension to nine months reveals an “irregular execution” and some of the reasons are “related to structural factors, but others point directly to poor planning and methodological deficiencies, which seriously calls into question the efficiency of the process”.<\/p>\n\n

\"Enumerators
Image of enumerators of the 2024 National Census. Photo: Taken from Inide <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The “failures” and distrust of the population<\/h2>\n\n

During the first months of the Census, Urnas Abiertas received reports of census takers who did not \u201creach the assigned areas,\u201d of constant changes in field staff, and of multiple visits to the same household. According to Valle, this \u201csuggests\u201d that the extension of Cepov \u201cwas not planned,\u201d but rather a \u201cdisorderly reaction to accumulated errors in execution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Emilia<\/em>, a resident of a western neighborhood in Managua, reports that census takers came to her home three times<\/a>. The first was the official visit, in May 2024, and the other two, in July and August, respectively, were to \u201cverify\u201d details that were not \u201cclear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe same little group came the first two times, but in August different people showed up. When I asked if something was wrong, they said the first girl had made some mistakes,\u201d said the woman, who takes care of her mother and some nieces and nephews because her siblings emigrated to the United States between 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n\n

According to Emilia<\/em>, the census takers were very interested in knowing exactly when her siblings left, whether they have stable jobs in the U.S., how much money they send, and how she spends or invests it.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI think they realized I didn\u2019t tell them the full truth about the money my brothers send, but I don\u2019t see the need to give them all the details<\/a>,\u201d said the Managua resident.<\/p>\n\n

Social researchers warned that \u201cthere is distrust among the population\u201d due to the context of political repression that has existed since 2018. The Nicaraguan Institute of Development Information (INIDE), which is in charge of the national Census, insisted that the information gathered \u201cwill be used solely for statistical purposes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

In an interview on the program Esta Semana<\/strong>,<\/em> sociologist and political scientist Juan Carlos Guti\u00e9rrez warned that citizens would likely \u201cgive data that do not reflect their actual conditions\u201d because they distrust how their data will be \u201cused.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cData can be used not only for national statistics but also to identify who can be charged more taxes. So people are also afraid of that,\u201d Guti\u00e9rrez warned.<\/p>\n\n

National Census and Political Surveillance Commission<\/h2>\n\n

For the implementation of the Cepov, dictator Daniel Ortega created<\/a>, in August 2023, a National Census Commission, which was made up of:<\/p>\n\n