The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo persists with its campaign to cancel the legal status of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Through the Ministry of the Interior (MINT), the dictatorship closed the Duo Guardabarranco Foundation, belonging to the singer-songwriter brothers Salvador and Katia Cardenal, artists recognized at the national and Central American level.
Through the ministerial agreement 21-2024-OSFL, published in La Gaceta this Tuesday, April 23, the Minister of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel Kinloch, indicated that the organization “did not report financial statements” for the periods between 2017 and 2023.
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The Dúo Barranco Foundation was responsible for transmitting to new generations the legacy of the Cardenal brothers’ music and the “positive message in the times to come.” In addition, the group also performed concerts and book donations to the Rubén Darío National Theater.
The music made by the Cardenal brothers aimed to call for social conscience, protection of nature and love for Nicaragua, hence the name of their group is that of the national bird. Among his most popular songs are Days of Loving (1990), Open house (1994) and give it a light (2007), which was broadcast daily on national channels for a time.
The musical duo’s peak was in the 1980s. In 1982, the brothers recorded their first album, produced by the Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy. Throughout their career, they performed concerts in Europe and America, performing in more than 25 countries. Both artists also had a successful solo era.
However, in 2010 an illness ended the life of Salvador Cardenal, at 49 years old. Despite this, Katia Cardenal continues with her musical career from Norway, a country where she recorded several of her individual albums, and preserving the more than 100 unreleased songs left by her brother.
He left the country due to the crisis
In an interview with the organization Voice of Monterey Bay, Katia Cardenal expressed that she left the country because “there is a dictatorship that has begun to kill people, to repress, to put political prisoners (in jail), to persecute journalists and leaders. “I, with the type of music I make, with my poetry, have always tried to promote people’s rights, human rights, and I don’t think I can live in Nicaragua.”
Similarly, Katia Cardenal admitted that “she had already been disillusioned with Sandinismo for a long time,” because she began to understand the “double face of the political party.” «On the one hand, they promote love for the poor, the rescue of human rights, work, education and on the other hand there is corruption, lies, favoritism, all that double face that the Latin American left has. “That doesn’t go with me, I am a person who advocates freedom and tolerance,” she said in the interview, conducted in 2019.
At that time, Katia reported that government sympathizers harassed her on social networks and accused her of being a “traitor” and “murderer.” The artist commented that the Sandinistas “write to me on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter. They have slandered me. And because of the insecurity and lack of work I couldn’t live there, I would be imprisoned or threatened but I am not going to expose myself to that. The power of music is stronger outside, inside it would be impossible for me to sing.
However, the singer-songwriter maintains the thought that “good will always defeat evil.” Cardenal stated that “the Nicaraguan people are fighters, brave and do not give up. I have blind and absolute faith that this will end soon. Sometimes I feel defeated but I sing again and when I see the faces of the people marching with my songs in the background, I believe again and make a commitment to the same thing I do.
Other canceled organizations
In addition to the Dúo Guardabarros Foundation, eight other organizations were canceled for “not reporting their financial statements for periods of between five to 20 years, with detailed breakdowns of income and expenses, trial balance, details of donations (origin, provenance and beneficiary). final) and Boards of Directors.
Among them are the Nicaragua Small Hotel Owners Associationthe Pro-Nicaraguan Kingdom Missionary Outreach Association (ALPRON), the Fraternity Path Foundation and the Rama Livestock Breeders Association (ASGARA).
Completing the list is Evangelical Association Prince of Peace Groupthe National Chamber of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Association (CANMPYME), the New Wine Evangelistic Missionary Association and the AInternational Tabernacle of Revival Association (AINTAR).
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Similarly, six other organizations requested their “voluntary dissolution” due to different reasons. The Kielsa Foundation for “having completed a portfolio of projects to be executed, in accordance with its aims and objectives”, the Airlines Association “due to lack of economic resources due to the Covid-19 pandemic” and the Nicaraguan Chamber of Valuers (CANIV) by “unanimous agreement of its members.”
The Kairos School Foundation for Training requested its cancellation due to lack of financing and health problems of its members, while the Lone Tree Institute, Inc. and the Sandino Memorial Community Association (ACMS) They opted to close it due to lack of money.
As is customary, the Sandinista regime appropriated the organizations’ assets, as it ordered that all properties pass into the hands of the Attorney General’s Office, the legal machinery that Ortega uses to confiscate and expropriate people who oppose him. to their repression and question their government.
