At least 42 organizations that worked to defend women’s rights in Nicaragua were stripped of their legal personality during the month of August, reported the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras).
In a releasethe Mesoamerican entity denounced that the administration of Daniel Ortega continues with “massive waves of cancellations” to NGOs.
She detailed that 147 feminist and women’s rights organizations have been illegally canceled since 2018 in Nicaragua.
Related news: Illegalization of feminist organizations has a “serious impact” on the struggle for women’s rights in Nicaragua
IM-Defensoras stressed that the National Assembly, at the service of the Ortega dictatorship, was in charge of outlawing NGOs, but that since August, with the reform of Law 1115, the General Law for the Regulation and Control of Nonprofit Organizations, Profit, the Ministry of the Interior (MIGOB) is the one who has given the order to cancel more entities.
Through the reform of the law referring to NGOs approved on August 11, the Sandinista steamroller granted Migob the absolute power to strip organizations of legal personality through ministerial agreements, without the need to go through the Executive.
The Mesoamerican organization pointed out that “the cancellation of these organizations has been supported by arbitrary procedures by the responsible institutions, which have put up all kinds of obstacles or have directly refused to receive the administrative documentation required by law, despite presenting it in time and form”.
Likewise, he denounced that after the illegalization of the entities, apart from dismantling the offices and requisitioning their assets, the Ortega regime criminalizes, harasses and attacks its members.
As an example of this, it is worth recalling the recent Illegal occupation and confiscation of the facilities of the Matagalpa Women’s Collective by the National Police, which we denounced through an urgent alert last Thursday, September 1,” he said.
IM-Defenders assured that they would not “get tired” of reiterating that the cancellation of the legal status of feminist organizations has a “serious impact” on the rights of Nicaraguan women, “leaving them in a situation of greater vulnerability, exposure to violence and the violation of their fundamental rights».
“We condemn this new arbitrary act of the neoliberal, corrupt, misogynistic and totalitarian government of Daniel Ortega against feminist organizations and against the rights of Nicaraguan women,” the statement read.
In addition, they urged “the international community and feminist solidarity to join these organizations and raise their voices to denounce this new arbitrariness against feminist organizations and for women’s rights in Nicaragua.”
