The Ministry of the Interior (Migob) eliminated, through a ministerial agreement, the legal status of one hundred civil society associations and foundations that worked, for the most part, social and economic development programs. With this decision, the regime already accumulates 1,781 personerías canceled between November 29, 2018 and September 1, 2022.
95.8% of legal entities and operation records, which includes foreign organizations, were canceled in the first eight months of 2022. June, July and August were the months with the most eliminations: an average of 442 per month, according to an analysis of CONFIDENTIAL. In total, during this year, they have canceled 1,707 NGOs.
The cancellation of legal status, published on Wednesday in the Official Gazette, becomes the second package that eliminates the Interior through ministerial resolutions, after last August the National Assembly reformed Law 1115, to grant this ministry the power to authorize or cancel legal entities through ministerial agreements, without the need to go through Parliament.
Among the eliminated organizations are the Odontological Federation of Central America and Panama, the Cristianismo Sin Fronteras Foundation, the Central American Organization for the Development of Democracy, the Foundation for Community Social Development, the Nicaraguan Foundation against Blindness, the Association for the Promotion and Reactivation of Crafts de Monimbó, International Solidarity Foundation with War Disabled.
Likewise, the La Montañita Project Development Association, the Granada Department Socioeconomic Development Foundation, the Ometepe Women’s Foundation, the Pro Foundation helps people affected by Nemagón, Fumazone and other pesticides, the Women’s Network for Life, the Indigenous Community of Jinotega, Waslala Foundation, Association of Professional Women of Economic Sciences of Nicaragua, among others.
Migob signals to hinder control of NGO
According to the Migob, the eliminated organizations hindered the control and surveillance of the General Directorate of Registration and Control of Non-Profit Organizations (OSFL), by not reporting their boards of directors and financial reports with detailed breakdowns.
“They did not report for more than eight to twenty-seven years their boards of directors (being headless) financial statements for fiscal periods, with a detailed breakdown of donations (origin, provenance and final beneficiary), as well as information on the identity and origin of all its members and donors. )”, states the resolution.
This has been the legal argument used by the regime to cancel associations and foundations en masse in recent months; however, the representatives of several of these organizations have denounced that they have complied with the requirements. They have even tried to deliver the corresponding documentation, but the Migob does not receive it.
The ministerial resolution details that after canceling the legal status of these eliminated organizations they have a period of 72 hours to deliver “all those related to the liquidation of goods and assets, as well as member registration books, which were authorized by the Directorate for their guard”.
This resolution was signed by the Minister of the Interior, Amelia Coronel Kinloch. In the previous cancellations, the name of Franya Urey Blandón, head of the General Directorate of Registration and Control of Non-Profit Organizations of the Ministry of the Interior, appeared. She was in charge of submitting the request for cancellation to the National Assembly, through deputy Filiberto Rodríguez.
