Crisis in Venezuela puts Nicaragua on alert

Nicaragua needs to devise a new economic plan which would be less dependent on Venezuelan cooperation through the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas, Alba, the economic and political group created by late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez.

The main reason is that Chavez's successor, Nicolás Maduro, won last Sunday's elections by a very narrow margin of 50.6 percent to 49.1 percent against opponent Henrique Capriles.

Nicaragua has received more than $2 billion in investment and aid from Venezuela through Alba, but without Chavez, Nicaragua needs to rethink its economic and political strategy, analysts say.

Full story (in Spanish)