The pro-government deputies, with the full support of the parliamentarians of the National Assembly, unanimously approved the reforms, additions and repeals to modify the laws with which the dictatorship will now use the resources obtained by the Non-Profit Organizations (OSFL) through forced “alliances” with state institutions with which they will have to share the projects.
Ortega’s political operators in the National Assembly approved reforms and additions to the General Law for the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, and to the Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents, as well as reforms and repeal of articles in the Tax Agreement Law.
As always happens with the legislative initiatives that Ortega sends to the legislature, the approval of the reforms was put to a vote without further discussion, thus fulfilling the dictator’s will.
Basically, what the Ortega-Murilo regime has achieved with the reforms to the three laws that regulate the operation of OSFLs is that non-profit entities cease to be independent, or independent of Civil Society, to become a kind of parastatal agencies.
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Since the reforms came into effect, NGOs are obliged to notify the dictatorship’s Ministry of the Interior of the funds obtained and must also include institutions of the regime in the execution of these projects.
“When donations, funds or material goods of any kind are destined for public goods, products and services provided by the State to the population, the Foreign Agent must submit to the Ministry of the Interior the corresponding Alliance request for validation,” states the reformed legislation.
Analysts and members of Nicaraguan civil society, which has been repressed, have maintained that Nicaragua’s dictators are seeking to completely eliminate civil society and the few NGOs that remain in the country, turning them into parastatal agencies.
Vice-dictator praises reforms that will control NGOs
Nicaraguan Vice-Dictator and Government Spokesperson Rosario Murillo referred to the reformed laws as legislation that will allow “the programs and projects developed by these NGOs to be carried out correctly.”
Murillo also praised the fact that from now on, NGOs that obtain external funds to carry out projects in the country are obliged, “according to their nature or field of action,” to request the subscription of an “Association Alliance” to the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in order to carry out their program or project.
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Likewise, the vice-dictator recalled that the reforms approved on August 20th confirm the elimination of exemptions for NGOs.
In short, the dictatorship justifies that the reforms sent by Ortega to his deputies for approval contain the modifications and additions necessary for the correct and effective execution of the Programs and Projects developed by the OSFL and Foreign Agents, under the new model of “association alliances”, invented by the regime to take control of the resources managed by the NGOs.
Since 2018, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship has waged a declared war against civil society, in the midst of which it has so far outlawed more than 5,200 NGOs, out of the 7,227 registered before the start of the social and political crisis that the country is experiencing, so it is assumed that there are still around 2,000 organizations registered with the Ministry of the Interior, that is, barely 28% of non-governmental entities survive.
