The president of the National Assembly of Nicaragua, deputy Gustavo Porras, introduced before that legislative body a preliminary bill for Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs), to pass from the control of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce (Mific), and from Conaderfi, to the Ministry of the Interior (Migob), which includes being able to close them without having to go through Parliament.
“This generates unnecessary stress in our organizations,” because it arouses suspicion among businessmen that they want to close the chambers, as well as the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep) itself. “For control purposes, the control already exists… this rather affects the business climate,” he told CONFIDENTIALunder condition of anonymity, an economist who is part of one of the chambers of the union leadership.
The proposed changes will affect business associations, federations and confederations, as well as organizations religious typesporting, recreational, charitable, social, cultural, educationaland even to sports timekeeping organizations.
The legislative initiative changes until the date on which the private sector chambers have to celebrate their Day. In the reform to Law 1115 or Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, it is established on October 12 of each year, as the Day of the Trade Union Chambers, Federations and Confederations of Nicaragua. COSEP established September 8 as “Businessman’s Day”, to commemorate the assassination of its former president, Jorge Salazar, in 1980.
“That’s not going to work. Private sector day is celebrated by the private sector. The rest is demagoguery,” added the source.
With the preliminary project, Law 1115, approved last March, is reformed, as well as Law 522 or General Law of Sports, Physical Education and Physical Recreation, in force since 2005; In addition, Law 849 or General Law of Business Union Chambers, Federations and Confederations, active since 2013, is repealed.
The ordered changes, in addition to expanding the range of organizations that the Migob would regulate, also intend to grant it “the power to authorize, regulate, operate, dissolution, liquidation and cancellation of NPOs, national and other nationalitiesthrough (A simple) Ministerial agreement”.
The ‘scorched earth’ policy practiced by the government led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, has canceled so far, 1380 NGOsusing the National Assembly, presided over by Porras, as the guillotine in charge of ‘extinguishing’ civil society.
everything is political
“This is not a surprise,” said the economist. “This confirms a system of government where what matters is not the general welfare, but to achieve the most absolute control of everything, eliminating all forms of organization, but it has been proven that this system does not work.”
CONFIDENTIAL requested the opinion of three directors who make up different chambers of the private sector, but due to the holiday in Managua, they could not meet to analyze the situation, although the economist shared what his colleagues have expressed in private.
In the union leadership there are several “interpretations: ranging from ‘they want to make us all disappear, starting with Cosep and those that have been more belligerent’, to the thesis that ‘they want to turn us into commercial entities,’” he mentioned.
His opinion is that, in reality, what this bill shows is that “there is a degree of mistrust (in the Mic), or that the institutional system is not as cohesive as they would like, or as they would like to believe. For wanting to strengthen a control, what they do is show the opposite”.
Remember that “Law 849 was issued in 2013, which says that it was designed under the logic of this Government. Making these changes now shows inconsistency, an absence of a long-term vision, in addition to a lack of cohesion in the government system, since, since 2013, they showed their interest in strengthening base control.”
He explains that, when he speaks of “distrust”, he refers to the Mific, a state institution that, in the end, yes, it delivered the letters of compliance to the union entities. “Although there are red and black flags on its façade, internally, the Mific continues to be a very responsible technical entity, and as such, it adheres to the law, which sometimes puts them in conflict, when they are ordered to violate or manipulate the law. , although that does not get to be made public ”.
“Why remove powers from the Mific, if it belongs to the same State, and if you yourself are the one who gave them to it?”, he asks. “That suggests they need to centralize these functions,” he adds.
The reason why the control of the union organizations migrated from the Migob to the Mific is because the latter is responsible for business development, but “with this change they are saying that the management becomes political, and it is inconsistent with the official thesis of set the political apart from the business. With this, the Government confirms that all social, political or economic actions are interrelated, which is correct when it is for the common good, not to benefit whoever is in power”, he defined.
The source reiterated his certainty that this will affect the Mific, “because there is an attempt at political subordination”, and that it will also affect the chambers because “with this change, they will make us go through the same filter with which some NPOs are being closed, which is a sign that they can close some, starting with Cosep, an option that all the chambers are fearing”, he shared.
