The Nicaraguan Academy of Language (ANL) lamented this Tuesday the cancellation of its legal personality, executed by the Sandinista majority of the National Assembly (Parliament), at the request of President Daniel Ortega, and stated that said decision “hinders” its contribution ” to the most precious good of culture”.
“With the cancellation of the legal status of the ANL, the functioning of an institution whose work has contributed to exalt the most precious asset of culture: the language, is hindered,” said the Academy, in a statement signed by its director, Pedro Xavier Solís Cuadra, the deputy director, María Auxiliadora Rosales Solís, and the secretary, Róger Matus Lazo.
The dissolution of the ANL, created on August 8, 1928, was urgently approved today by the 75 Sandinista deputies and their allies, out of a total of 91, in a session in which there was no debate.
The Legislature argued that the Nicaraguan Academy of Language was not registered as a “foreign agent”, as mandated by a law approved in October 2020 and that it applies to Nicaraguan natural or legal persons who receive money from abroad, with some exceptions.
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“The ANL deeply regrets the cancellation of the legal personality of an institution dedicated to the study of the language and the cultivation of Nicaraguan letters; and appreciates the shows of support both nationally and internationally”, added the Nicaraguan Academy, Correspondent of the Royal Spanish Academy and member of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language.
The ANL has received the support of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE), and the Academies of the Language of Chile, Ecuador and Mexico.
The work of the Academy
The Nicaraguan Academy recalled that “it has developed a tenacious work in promoting the study of Spanish in Nicaragua, its values and cultural traditions through the publication of innumerable works whose linguistic and literary value has transcended in the Hispanic world.”
He added that “as a member of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (ASALE), the ANL has undertaken – in conjunction with its sister academies – fruitful work in the participation of large pan-Hispanic projects such as the Dictionary of Americanisms, the two editions of the New grammar of the Spanish language, the Dictionary of doubts, the Dictionary of the Spanish language and others”.
Among the Nicaraguan academic members of the Academy are the former vice president and writer Sergio Ramírez, exiled in Spain since last year, and the poet and writer Gioconda Belli, also exiled.
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The ANL was canceled this Tuesday along with 83 other NGOs, including the Enrique Bolaños Foundation, which has one of the most complete virtual libraries in the country.
With these cancellations, the number of NGs illegalized since December 2018 rises to 319, including universities, think tanks, organizations that defend human rights, environmentalists, feminists, and cultural organizations, among others.
Nicaragua has been in a political and economic crisis for four years, which in 2018 left at least 355 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The crisis was accentuated in the general elections of last November 7, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison.
