Daniel Ortega, through the National Assembly of Nicaragua, canceled this Thursday the legal entities of another 96 Nicaraguan NGOs for not registering as “foreign agents”, bringing the total number of non-profit civil organizations outlawed since December 2018 to 440.
The dissolution of the 96 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), at the request of the Government of President Daniel Ortega, was urgently approved by the 75 Sandinista deputies and their allies. Another 14 legislators, of the 91 that make up Parliament, abstained, and two were present and did not vote.
Among the organizations affected is the Center for International Studies Foundation (CEI) directed by Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo -stepdaughter of President Ortega and whom she denounced in 1998 for sexual abuse-.
Also the Nicaraguan Development Institute (INDE), the social arm of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep), Nicaragua’s main employer leadership, which clarified the day before that this dissolution does not harm its legal status because since 2014 they are regulated by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce (Mific).
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Another outlawed NGO is the Federation of Professional Associations of Nicaragua (Conapro), also from Cosep, which before the crisis that broke out in April 2018 maintained a consensus dialogue with Ortega, who has been in power since 2007.
In addition, the Nicaraguan Pediatric Society Association, the Internet Association of Nicaragua, the La Cuculmeca Education and Communication Association, and the Esquipulas Foundation, among others, were dissolved.
FOR NOT REGISTERING AS “FOREIGN AGENTS”
In a report, the Ministry of the Interior argued that these NGOs failed to register “in the registry of Foreign Agents, these being obligated subjects, in accordance with the Law Regulating Foreign Agents”, approved by the Sandinistas after the anti-government demonstrations that broke out in April 2018.
In addition, according to the Ministry of the Interior, these NGOs violated the General Law for the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, in force since May 6; as well as the Law Against Money Laundering.
With these new 96 associations, the number of NGOs dissolved in the last three days rose to 179, including the Nicaraguan Academy of Language.
In Nicaragua, with the vote of the Sandinista deputies and their allies, who are the majority in Parliament, the legal status of at least 440 NGOs has been canceled since December 2018, eight months after a popular revolt broke out – caused by controversial reforms to social security- described as an attempted coup by Ortega.
NGOs HAVE BEEN DISMANTLED AFTER PROTESTS AGAINST ORTEGA
Sandinista deputy Filiberto Rodríguez, promoter of the initiatives, has maintained that the affected NGOs used resources from the donations they received to try to overthrow Ortega, although he has not presented evidence.
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In April 2018, thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets to protest controversial social security reforms, which later became a demand for Ortega to resign because he responded with force.
The protests, described by the Executive as a coup attempt, left at least 355 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), although local organizations raise the figure to 684 and the Government recognizes 200.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the controversial general elections on 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 her main contenders in prison.
