At least 3,106 NGOs out of the 7,227 that were registered in Nicaragua until 2018 have been dissolved by order of the government headed by Sandinista Daniel Ortega, according to a report presented Tuesday by affected organizations.
“We have a restriction of 43% of the civic space that existed before 2018” in Nicaragua, said environmentalist Amaru Ruiz, director of the Fundación del Río, an NGO that was outlawed by the Nicaraguan National Assembly (Parliament) at the request of the Ministry of Government of that country.
“The regime (of Nicaragua) reported 7,227 active legal entities at that time (2018)” and to date 3,106 canceled organizations have been registered, Ruiz specified, during the presentation of the report “Nicaragua ONG File”, through a press conference face-to-face and virtual from San José.
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The Government of Nicaragua, through the Ministry of the Interior or via legislative decree, has dissolved 3,106 Nicaraguan and other NGOs after the popular protests that broke out in April 2018 in that country.
Did they try to overthrow Ortega?
Sandinista deputies such as Filiberto Rodríguez have said that the affected NGOs used resources from the donations they received to try to overthrow President Ortega in the demonstrations that broke out in April 2018.
In April 2018, thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets to protest controversial social security reforms, which later turned into a demand for Ortega’s resignation as he responded with force.
The protests left at least 355 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), although local organizations raise the figure to 684 and the Government recognizes 200.
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According to the study, prepared by the Local Network, the Nicaraguan Platform of NGO Networks, the Popol Na Foundation, the Río Foundation and the Nicaragua Nunca Más Human Rights Collective, as of February of this year “the worst wave of cancellations of personalities was unleashed legal, with data that astonishes even the Rapporteur for Freedom of Association of the United Nations”.
“By then the numbers were 9 organizations closed in 2019 and 96 canceled until February 2022. Now an update of the situation of freedom of association is presented from February to November 2022, and 3,106 non-profit organizations are counted ”, he detailed.
Affected NGOs describe their closures as “crimes”
This group of organizations described as “crimes” the dissolution of these NGOs by “the Ortega-Murillo regime against civil liberties and the human rights of the people of Nicaragua” and trusted “that in the future all crimes will be tried and that we will conquer Justice”.
Ruiz maintained that the closure of these NGOs has had a social, economic, community and human rights impact, which he has not yet been able to quantify.
He indicated that, based on a study carried out on 9 affected NGOs, they found that almost 50,000 people have been left without access to essential services and more than 150 without employment.
“There is no opportunity to defend freedom of association within Nicaragua,” said lawyer Carlos Guadamuz, from the Nicaragua Nunca Más Human Rights Collective.
Sandinista legislators have also argued that the banning of these NGOs is part of an ordering process, because not all of the more than 7,000 registered ones were operating.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth in a row and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo. , as vice president, with her main contenders in prison or in exile.
