The Nunca Más Nicaragua Human Rights Collective condemned the new attack by the Daniel Ortega regime against another 100 non-governmental organizations —86 are national and 14 international— whose legal personality was eliminated.
The agency recalled that the arguments of the Nicaraguan dictatorship were the same that it has used with the dozens of “annihilated” entities, arguing that they failed to comply with the General Law for the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, the Law on Money Laundering , the Financing of Terrorism and the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the General Law of Sports, Physical Education and Physical Recreation.
Related news: Ortega regime approaches 3,500 NGOs eliminated
In the morning hours of this Thursday, December 1, the regime published in La Gaceta, official newspaper number 226-2022, the ministerial agreement No. 17-2022-0SFL where the cancellation of the legal personality of 86 organizations was made official. National non-profits including: Yo Quiero Ser Feliz Foundation, Association of the United Blind of Nicaragua, Sueños de Dios Christian Association and the Nicaraguan Foundation to Fight Diabetes.
As if that were not enough, the dictator Daniel Ortega also outlawed the Association of Friends of the National Policean institution that has been one of the oppressive apparatuses in the country.
While among foreign non-profit organizations there are Esperanza en Acción, Fundación Américas Unidas and the One, Two, Tree Association.
The international NGOs were mostly from the United States, followed by one from Panama, Spain, El Salvador and Austria. Among the American ones are the Global Alliance for Children, the United Americas Foundation and Brazos Unidos, all dedicated to social assistance.
More than three thousand NGOs canceled
Given this, the Human Rights Collective recalled that the Ministry of the Interior and the National Assembly since 2018 “have canceled the legal status of at least 3,073 organizations, both national and international.”
They state that the purpose of these arbitrary actions “is to exercise absolute control and silence society; persecute those who have a different opinion and establish a single thought, violating the human rights of the Nicaraguan people.”
Related news: Regime will exceed a thousand NGOs canceled in Nicaragua
“They continue to attack the freedom and right of association of the Nicaraguan population. We express our solidarity with the victims and beneficiaries of the canceled organizations; We demand the cessation of repression, the repeal of all repressive laws and the freedom of all political prisoners in Nicaragua,” denounced the human rights organization.
Recently, the Puente Movement, an organization that works on citizenship issues, rejected and denounced the actions of the Nicaraguan regime to want to “bury” the right of association in the country. They point out that the dictatorship has annihilated more than two thousand NGOs through the creation of new laws and reforms. “Organizing is not a crime, it is a human right!” said the Puente Movement.
He also recalled that, on March 31 of this year, the National Assembly controlled by the ruling party approved Law 1115 or the General Law for the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, a new regulation that granted greater powers to the Ministry of the Interior and the General Directorate of Registration and Control of Non-Profit Organizations on regulation and control of NGOs.
The dictatorship has increased its repression from January 2022 to date, not only against non-governmental organizations that it canceled without justification, but also against the Nicaraguan opposition and the Catholic Church.
