Nicaraguan and international organizations are alert to the onslaught of the Daniel Ortega regime against NGOs, which has generated the elimination of more than a thousand national and foreign entities from mid-2018 to date. The concern grows after the same deputies of the ruling party assured that the intention is to continue this dynamic.
The Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States, Brian Nichols, raised his complaint in the face of this situation, which is leading to thousands of nationals becoming even more destitute due to the closure of Non-Governmental Organizations that worked in areas such as health, nutrition, education, housing, protection of women’s rights, among others.
The delegate of the Joe Biden administration wrote on his Twitter account that “the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua said that it plans to close 1,797 non-profit organizations, but the real number could be much higher. The regime cares more about staying in power than about the well-being of its people.”
The Ortega deputies assure that the NGOs “violate the laws of Nicaragua, disrespect the legal order and have tried to trample on the legal norms that govern the laws of this country. They are paper organizations. They do not exist in the lives of Nicaraguan families and communities.
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Gustavo Porras, the sanctioned president of the Assembly, has pointed out that the banning of NGOs is part of a process of ordering “something that was adrift”, because there were organizations that did not function and others that did not comply with the laws, not were accountable or did not comply with their own statutes.
He also announced that they will continue “with this cleaning work” under the argument that there cannot be more than 6,000 NGOs in Nicaragua “that are not doing anything.”
More than a thousand NGOs canceled
According to the count of the Nicaraguan Never Again Human Rights Collective, the Ortega Murillo regime has canceled at least 1,074 organizations, an action that has been condemned by that group.
Yesterday, July 18, in a lightning session, FSLN parliamentarians annulled the legal status of 10 non-governmental organizations for allegedly failing to comply with their obligations under the General Law for the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations and the Money Laundering Law. of Assets, the Financing of Terrorism and the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
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Among the illegal NGOs are the Association for Agricultural Development of Nicaragua (Expica) and the Association for Health, Education and Social Development of Our Lady of Guadalupe (APSEDES GUADALUPE).
The Collective describes these processes as “arbitrary and unconstitutional. The purpose of these cancellations is to exercise absolute control and silence society, persecute those who think differently and establish a single thought, violating the human rights of the Nicaraguan people.
Likewise, they denounce that this highlights the systematic repression that Nicaragua faces, the disrespect for the Constitution and the violation of the right to freedom of association and political participation, further affecting the precarious development of the country.
