The Ministry of the Interior (Migob), presented before the National Assembly, an ‘Initiative of Legislative Decree of Cancellation of Legal Personality’ of the International Foundation for the Global Economic Challenge (Fideg), directed by economist Alejandro Martínez Cuenca, whose facilities were occupied by the National Police, last November 4.
Fideg is one of the main independent centers for socio-economic research and analysis, founded in the early 1990s, which is dedicated to conducting studies on economic and social development, including issues of education, the fight against poverty and gender equality.
Its main product is the biannual Household Surveys to Measure Poverty in Nicaragua, in which the same households are repeatedly surveyed, in order to present an image of how this scourge is evolving in the country.
To justify the closure before Parliament, the report by the director of the Migob Associations Registry and Control Department, Franya Uriel Blandón, argued that Fideg “did not register as a Foreign Agent, in breach of Law 1040, since it is an obligated subject, because receives donations from abroad ”.
State retaliation is part of the regime’s offensive against the “55 oenegés – national or international – that have been closed, because they act apart from the hegemony of the regime,” despite the fact that they contribute to the exercise of citizenship, or the promotion health rights, or local development, said Gonzalo Carrión, president of the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective.
“East combo The legislative body tries to give it a cloak of legality, but it is still unconstitutional: Articles 132 and 183 clearly state that ‘laws and other provisions that oppose the Constitution and Human Rights will have no value, and those laws are arbitrary, such as the 1055, which has a single article that is abstract and diffuse, but they used it as a backup to have more than 30 people kidnapped ”, added Carrión.
According to Urey Blandón, “the legal representation of this Foundation did not present the financial statements for 2020, with their detailed breakdowns, income, expenses, verification balance, origin and detail of donations, provenance and final beneficiary, violating the provisions” in various laws .
Specifically, they indicate Law 147, General Law on Non-Profit Legal Persons; Law 977 Against Money Laundering, Financing Terrorism and the proliferation of Weapons of mass destruction; the Executive Decree 15 – 2018, which regulates Law 977, etc.
The Fideg Poverty Surveys
The findings of the latest Fideg investigations contradict the official discourse: while the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN), citing data from the Nicaraguan Institute of Information for Development (Inide), systematically reduces the percentages of people who are in a situation of general poverty and extreme poverty, Fideg’s findings say otherwise.
In September 2018, the data presented showed a discrepancy of 17.1 percentage points with the official data: while the Government alleged in its surveys that poverty had been reduced From 29.6% in 2014 to 24.9% in 2016, Fideg’s independent measurement indicated that poverty had rather increased from 39% in 2015 to 42% in 2016.
The survey carried out in 2019, the data of which was presented in December 2020, showed that overall poverty continued to rise, until reaching 44.4% of the inhabitants, while 8.9% lived in extreme poverty.
The results of the survey conducted by Fideg in 2021, were being processed, when the police raided the facilities on November 4, and have not yet been released.
The closure is political
One more argument of the Ministry of the Interior to request the closure of Fideg is that it has not presented “the identity documents of its providers of funds and income support; the good reputation of its beneficiaries ”and of its associated organizations, as mandated by the regulations of Law 977.
In this regard, Carrión recalled that, as on other occasions, as when 24 oenegés closed last July, the text presented before the Assembly is shielded in indications of the type for “failing to fulfill the purpose for which they were created … not reporting financial statements for several years”, and so on.
When sending the Legislative Decree Initiative to the president of the National Assembly, the deputy Gustavo Porras, his colleague Filiberto Rodríguez assures that the cancellation of the legal personality of the Fideg “is necessary… it is not opposed to the Political Constitution, nor to constitutional laws, nor to the international treaties signed and ratified by Nicaragua ”.
CONFIDENTIAL The cell phone of economist Alejandro Martínez Cuenca, director of Fideg, was contacted, who abstained from informing or commenting on the state decision to close the research center, arguing that “I can’t hear you well.” A subsequent communication, made by text on WhatsApp, did not receive a response either.
The Fideg website does not have any reference, statement or clarification regarding the seizure of its facilities, or the presentation of the initiative aimed at canceling its legal status.
