The Government of Nicaragua, through the Ministry of the Interior, ordered the closure of another 25 NGOs, including the Luisa Mercado Foundation, which is directed by the Nicaraguan writer exiled in Spain, Sergio Ramírez Mercado, the Legislative Power reported on Monday.
With these new annulments, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has canceled, since November 2018, at least 143 legal entities organizations, foundations and associations of civil society that promoted social, political, economic, human rights, democracy, education and health development in Nicaragua, according to a count made by CONFIDENTIAL.
Among the causes used to cancel them, the breach of three laws stands out: the Law on Non-Profit Legal Entities or Law 147; the Organic Law of the Legislative Power of the Republic of Nicaragua or Law 606, and the Law against Money Laundering, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction or Law 977.
The Executive of President Daniel Ortega also ordered the closure of the Association for the Development of Solentiname, founded in 1982 by the late Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal (1925-2020).
Ramírez was Vice President of Nicaragua during the first Sandinista regime (1979-1990), which was also headed by the current president, from whom he distanced himself in 1995 when he founded the Sandinista Renovating Movement (MRS), a split from the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
Meanwhile, Cardenal, who was Minister of Culture, went from being a symbol of the Sandinista revolution to being a “political persecuted”, as he himself declared, by Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, with whom he clashed. in the last years of his life.
Both the writer and the poet participated in the struggle against the Somoza family dictatorship and were militants of the FSLN until 1995, in power with Ortega since January 2007.
Cardenal, one of the greatest figures in Latin American literature and a great promoter of Liberation Theology, argued that the Ortega government “is not leftist, nor Sandinista, nor revolutionary, but simply a family dictatorship,” like the one that they overthrew
Defenders of the DD. H H.
The Ministry of the Interior also proposed to the National Assembly, controlled by the ruling party, to cancel the legal personality of the Permanent Commission of Human Rights of Nicaragua (CPDH)dedicated to the defense of human rights since 1991.
Other NGOs proposed to be outlawed are the Coen Foundation, owned by businessman Piero Coen; the Nicaraguan Association of Engineers and Architects, the Nicaraguan Association of Cinematography and the Training Center Association for Working Women.
Also the Center for Communication and Popular Education Foundation, the Foundation for the Comprehensive Development of Indigenous Women of Sutiaba, and the Nicaraguan Coordinating Federation of Non-Governmental Organizations that work with Children and Adolescents (Codeni).
In addition, the Nicaraguan Academy of Legal and Political Sciences Association, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Nicaraguan Foundation for the Promotion of Democracy, Peace, and the Development of Civil Society.
In Nicaragua, with the vote of the Sandinista deputies and their allies, at least 112 Nicaraguan NGOs have been outlawed since December 2018, eight months after a popular revolt broke out over controversial social security reforms described as a coup attempt of State by Ortega.
The last 25 NGOs, including the Nicaraguan affiliate of Operación Sonrisas, were annulled on March 17.
Among the organizations that have been affected are NGOs that defend human rights, medical, feminist, educational, universities, environmentalists, indigenous, journalists, and think tanks, among others.
The Executive has also canceled the registrations and perpetual numbers of four American and six European NGOs.
same argument
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the new 25 NGOs that will be affected have failed to comply with their obligations, including not registering as
“foreign agents, being obligated subjects because they received donations from abroad”.
Nor did they report their financial statements with their detailed breakdowns of income, expenses, trial balance and details of donations (origin, provenance and final beneficiary); nor their boards of directors.
The National Assembly included the new initiative in the agenda for this Wednesday, so it is expected to be presented to the plenary.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has been accentuated after the controversial general elections on November 7, in which Daniel Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo. , as vice president, with her main contenders in prison.
