The regime of Daniel Ortega, through the Ministry of the Interior (Migob), canceled another hundred non-governmental organizations, arguing that the canceled associations, organizations and foundations did not comply with Nicaraguan laws. Thus, as of September 19, 2022, the number of NGOs canceled in Nicaragua by Ortega rises to 1,907.
As of September, the Migob has been in charge of canceling Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) through the publication of ministerial agreements in the official newspaper, La Gaceta, signed by the head of that entity, Maria Amelia Colonel Kinloch. The previous annulments were made by means of a decree initiative, which the Parliament, dominated by the Sandinista Front, approved without any type of discussion.
This is due to the reform of Law 1115 or the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, approved last August, which empowered the Migob “the authorization, regulation, operation, dissolution, liquidation and cancellation of NPOs, national and other nationalitiesthrough (a simple) Ministerial Agreement”, without any type of mechanism for those affected to appeal the decision to close them.
In this group of canceled NGOs, the regime included the Association of Retired Combatants of the Sandinista Popular Army, Renewal Movement (ASOCOMRET), the Josefa Toledo de Aguerri Women’s Association, the National Association of Sumus Communities (Sukawala), the Foundation for the Development of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, the Bonanza Organic Cocoa Growers Association, the North Atlantic Fisheries Association, the Teodoro Kint Foundation for Pobles del Viejo children, among others. See the complete list of organizations here
From December 2018 to September 2022, the regime has stripped 1,981 organizations of their legal status, under the same discourse with some nuances.
In this Agreement, the Migob points out to NGOs not to report for periods of four to 24 years on their boards of directors, being headless, financial statements according to fiscal periods with detailed breakdowns of income and expenses, trial balance, detail of donations -origin , provenance and final beneficiary- and information on the identity and origin of all its members and donors.
The Ortega deputy, Filiberto Rodríguez, has indicated that the demolition of the organizations responds to one order at a time, which has indicated that they lend their structures to supposedly support the failed coup d’état, as the Government calls the Civic Rebellion of April 2018, which was crushed by police repression and paramilitary groups.
The organizations affected by the regime’s hunt were dedicated to health projects, economic, social, and local development, women’s empowerment, child protection, education, culture, the environment, and others. With its closure, the most affected are its beneficiaries, who already number in the thousands.
