The Ministry of the Interior (Migob) canceled another hundred Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs); being 88 nationals and 12 foreigners. With this recent annulment, the Ortega regime has closed 2,781 organizations from the end of December 2018 to date.
Migob’s main argument is that NPOs failed to comply with national legislation. It ensures that national organizations “did not report for periods of between two and 25 years, boards of directors, financial statements according to fiscal periods with detailed breakdowns of income and expenses, trial balance, details of donations” and identity information of its members and donors. .
Some of the canceled organizations were evangelical, union, health and development promotion in the departments of Nicaragua.
These are some of the closed national organizations, foundations and associations: the Eres Youth Movement Association, the Somotillo Community Development Association, the Diriamba Municipal Association for Comprehensive Development, the Northern Indigenous Youth Association, the La Esperanzita Foundation, the National Foundation for the Support of Family and Women, among others. See here the complete list.
More foreign NGOs close
The Ortega regime has also applied the guillotine to foreign organizations. Through an administrative resolution published in the official newspaper La Gaceta on Thursday, November 10, the Migob closed 12 organizations from Spain, the United States, Holland, Austria, England, Canada, Mexico and Germany.
- Global Humanitarian Association, from Spain
- Association of Help to the Children of the World, of Spain
- Friends of Bradley’s House of Hope, United States
- Inter-Ecclesiastical Foundation for Development Cooperation (ICCO), of the Netherlands
- Pronica Inc, from the United States
- Hilfswerk from Austria
- Seed International Fund Trust, of England
- United for a New Nicaragua, from the United States
- Association for the Development of Children and Women, of Spain
- Doctors of the World Association of Canada
- Abundant Life Alliance Association, from Mexico
- Agro Acción Alemana (Deutsche Welthungerhilfe), from Germany
With this new group, the regime of Daniel Ortega adds 301 organizations of other nationalities closed since 14 months ago, mainly from the United States.
The Migob accuses foreign NGOs of being in “abandonment and have between 2 to 26 years of non-compliance with their obligations in accordance with the laws that regulate them”.
The crusade against organized civil society has caused the closure of NGOs that worked in defense of human rights, the environment, the rights of women and children, local and sustainable development, health, education, provided humanitarian aid and cared for vulnerable sectors, through charitable works.
Although the Ortega deputies have pointed out that the majority of these NGOs were not operating when they were closed down without the right to reply, a study —which analyzed a sample of 53 NGOs out of 1,000 that were closed— carried out by the Inter-American Dialogue revealed that the organizations were carrying out projects worth 41 million dollars when they lost their legal status and operation registration, in the case of international organizations.
The massive closure of NGOs in Nicaragua has affected to more than a million of Nicaraguans who benefited from various social programsthe investigation showed.
