Nicaragua ‘Weaponizing’ U.S.-Bound Migrants, Observers Say

NICARAGUA – More than 260 charter flights believed to be carrying migrants from Haiti have touched down in Nicaragua in recent months. That’s according to flight data and experts in the region, who described the situation as an historic crush of migration by people hoping to reach the U.S.

The flow of migrants has left the Biden administration and Latin American leaders scrambling for solutions, and experts say it’s also being used as leverage by governments like Nicaragua’s to get concessions from the U.S. Amid tightening sanctions.

Manuel Orozco, Director of the Migration, Remittances and Development Program at the Inter-American dialogue calls it a concrete example of weaponizing migration as a foreign policy.