Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega revoked the legal status and seized the assets of the Central American Institute of Business Administration (Incae) in Nicaragua, citing alleged failures to submit annual reports. It is the most brutal attack by a dictator on the sources of knowledge, freedom and diversity of opinion. This unfortunate event for Nicaragua reveals its intention to subjugate its non-governmental capacity to seek the truth and facilitate social progress. Therefore, the Incas were an obstacle to the purpose of building a citizenry dependent on the all-encompassing will of the leader.

Beyond the facts and their causes, this should be an opportunity to evaluate the Inca’s contribution to the countries it serves, asking: what is Nicaragua losing? How can we make better use of Incas from other countries?

If the progress of free societies has as its dynamo the capacity to create value for its inhabitants, the Incas prepared thousands of agents of change for this. Since its founding at Harvard University in 1964, its students in its master’s and executive training programs have successfully run companies, often transcending small national markets, internationalizing them even amid the vicissitudes of Latin American history, plagued by bloody civil wars. , hyperinflation, insecurity, etc.

The institute, which is present in Ecuador, is among the top 40 in the education of CEOs in the ranking of the Financial Times

Companies that build their progress on the basis of dialogue and public-private cooperation, and that counted on Incae in this, have profited from successful national and/or sectoral programs to improve competitiveness and sustainable development. In order to achieve this, the institute collaborated with national and global leaders and companies, non-governmental organizations, international cooperation agencies and governments that had and will have in the Incas a permanent source of new knowledge and a formal instance for discussion and building collective purposes. Its proverbial neutrality has provoked the participation of public and private leaders in successful planning and implementation processes for business competitiveness, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

In this context, Ecuador was the central objective of the Incae mission: the Program of Economic Studies and Training, Progresec (1980-1996), and the programs to improve competitiveness implemented from 1998 to the present, the successful sectors of the national economy are proof of this. However, his most important influence is on the Ecuadorians who constantly pass through his classrooms, transforming them into constant seekers of excellence as the source of their freedom, dignity and prosperity.

In short, Nicaragua is losing the most glorious source of knowledge and the ability to articulate sustainable development with the excellence it had at hand, only to sink further into the night of intellectual poverty, repression and poverty. Latin America and the world continue to count on the Incas to build better days for their children, families and nations. (OR)