The Superior Council of Universities (CNU), under the control of the regime, ordered the universities “legally established in Nicaragua” to report, 30 days in advance, on any “migratory movement” of foreign students and advisors.
At the beginning of last August, the CNU had already demanded —through a circular— that the universities communicate about the migration movements of teaching and administrative staff. With another circular, dated this September 9, the governing body clarified that the measure also includes “foreign students and advisors who visit universities.”
Both circulars have been signed by Jaime López Lowery, technical secretary of the CNU. The body justified its decision based on numeral 14 of article 58 of Law 89 or Law of Autonomy of Higher Education Institutions, which establishes —according to a reform ordered and approved by Ortega on March 31— that the body The rector can “require the IES (Higher Education Institutions) the information that he considers necessary for his better performance and that of higher education.”
The new circular also clarified that the measure covers “exits from the country for personal matters, such as tourism, family visits, vacations, among others, of the management personnel of all levels of universities.” Extends the notice period from seven to 30 days in advance.
The information that universities must send includes: full name of the person who is going to leave or enter Nicaragua, identification or passport number, country of origin or destination, date of entry or exit from the country, reason for the visit, duration of visit and port of entry or exit.
In an interview with CONFIDENCIAL, jurists and education experts have warned that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has imposed “total and partisan control” over public universities, in which university autonomy and academic freedom have been lost.
The Ortega regime closed and eliminated, in the first quarter of 2022, the legal status of ten private universities. Among the canceled study houses are: the Hispano-American University (Uhispam), the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (Upoli), the Catholic University of the Dry Tropics (Ucatse), the Nicaraguan University of Humanitarian Studies (UNEH), the Popular University of Nicaragua (Uponic ) and the Paulo Freire University (UPF).
