The Sandinista steamroller in the National Assembly approved this November 9 the Law to Change the Legal Regime of at least 29 Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs), in search of a greater “ordering and purification process.” The regime argues that the associations carry out activities of a commercial nature and the provision of financial services.
This new action explains that in the financial and microfinance sphere there are entities that were created as non-profit civil associations, in accordance with the provisions of Law 147 (General Law on Non-Profit Legal Entities) that was approved on 19 March 1992, but whose activity corresponds to that of commercial entities.
Related news: Nicaraguan Dictatorship Orders 29 NGOs to Adjust Legal Regime
Among the NGOs that will be subject to this new imposition will be the Association for the Promotion of Development of Nicaragua (Afodenic), Jinotega Global Village Project Association (Pagjino), Martin Luther King Association, Association for Opportunity and Economic Development of Nicaragua (Asodenic), Center for the Promotion of Local Development and Overcoming Poverty (Ceprodel), Fund Association of the Nicaraguan Development Institute (Finde), Women’s Foundation and Community Economic Development.
After this law enters into force, the new commercial companies will have 90 days to change their regime and another 90 days to transfer the assets of the non-profit organizations to the new commercial companies. It points out that the transfer and registration of assets must be carried out “under the principles with speed, publicity and immediacy.”
The initiative establishes that in the case of ProMujer and The Neo Foundation, because they are considered merely foreign, the Ministry of the Interior will cancel their legal entities.
Related news: Representatives of Nicaraguan NGOs denounce the illegal appropriation of their assets
The Nicaraguan Never Again Human Rights Collective, based in Costa Rica, recently pointed out that repressive laws continue to be applied that are used to justify cancellations of non-governmental organizations and criminalize their members, “which increases the vulnerability of historically discriminated populations.” ».
From 2018 to date, Ortega has decided to cancel almost three thousand NGOs. The Collective states that “the purpose of these cancellations is to exercise absolute control and silence society; persecute those who think differently and establish a single thought, violating the human rights of the Nicaraguan people.
