The Parliament, dominated by the Sandinista Front, eliminated another hundred Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs), bringing to 1,380 NGOs canceled since the end of 2018. More than 94% of the organizations were canceled during the seven months of 2022 .
The NGO cancellation decree, presented by the Ortega deputy Filiberto Rodríguez, was approved this Tuesday, August 9, with 75 votes in favor, 15 abstentions and one present.
Among the organizations eliminated are the Association of Combatants and Collaborators History of the Sandinista National Liberation Front of Chinandega September 9, the Nicaraguan Foundation of Former Fighters for Freedom, Democracy and Reconciliation of America and the Association of Women of the Nicaraguan Resistance, among others; which would bring to 1,306 the number of organisms canceled during the course of 2022.
As has happened in previous decrees for the cancellation of NGOs, the deputies justify the closure of the organizations because they allegedly failed to comply with Nicaraguan laws: they did not register as foreign agents, nor did they report their financial statements for more than five and 25 years according to fiscal periods with detailed breakdowns, their boards of directors were headless; which violates Law 1115, General Law of Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations,
According to the Ministry of the Interior (Migob) the NGOs “have acted against express law, their actions have violated what is established in these normative legal instruments,” reads the decree.
Social impact
Among the organizations that have been canceled are environmentalists, educational, defenders of children’s rights, human rights, feminists, indigenous rights, cultural, entrepreneurship, democracy and health.
At the end of July, a group of United Nations experts, in a letter addressed to the Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, warned that the massive cancellation of NGOs “will have even more devastating consequences.” on people and groups in a situation of marginalization”.
They said marginalized citizens “depend” on NGO services “for their survival; for example, rural and indigenous communities, children and youth, women and asylum seekers.”
In mid-July, Brian Nichols, US Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, warned that Ortega “plans to close 1797 organizations nonprofit, but the actual number could be much higher.” On his Twitter account, the high-ranking official posted that “the regime cares more about remaining in power than about the well-being of its people.”
The Ortega deputies have defended the hunt against NGOs as part of an order. However, human rights defenders and international organizations describe the measure as part of the repression against organized civil society.
The Sandinista Front has pointed out that several of the organizations facilitated their work scheme to supposedly get involved in the failed coup of 2018, as they call the 2018 Civic Rebellion, which the regime crushed with fire and blood, leaving at least 355 fatalities according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and who are still in impunity.
