With 74 votes in favor, zero against, 15 abstentions and one present, the Nicaraguan regime, through its steamroller of Sandinista deputies in the National Assembly, canceled this April 19 the legal personality of 25 non-profit organizations.
Among the entities annulled by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), the only one in that area that remained in the country working legally. It also “beheaded” the Nicaraguan Coordinator of Non-Governmental Organizations that work with children and adolescents (Codeni).
Related news: Regime orders to remove the legal status of the CPDH and 24 other organizations
The proposal sent by the Sandinista deputy Filiberto Rodríguez, who chairs the Peace, Defense, Government and Human Rights Commission, highlights that these organizations did not report their financial reports according to the fiscal periods and detailed breakdowns as established by law.
Before this action by the dictatorship, the CPDH board of directors denounced on February 28, that at that time the Ministry of the Interior (Migob) refused to receive the annual financial report that it is obliged to comply with as an institution.
The executive secretary of the Commission, Marcos Carmona, said at that time that the refusal by the State institution has been taking place since 2018, the year in which the civic protest against the Daniel Ortega regime took place.
The CPDH tried to present the act of compliance, a document with which, according to Carmona, they could register as foreign agents. The regime imposed a regulation that requires all non-profit associations to account to the State for all donations and income they receive.
Related news: Government avoids receiving financial report from the CPDH
With the closure of CPDH, there is no organization left in defense of human rights legalized in Nicaragua. Since 2018, this NGO suffered siege and harassment of its directors and lawyers. Ortega’s justice currently holds the lawyer María Oviedo captive for the alleged crime of “undermining national integrity.”
Article 66 tried to find out the reaction of the board of directors of the CPDH to this new action against human rights, however contact could not be established.
other organizations
Among other canceled organizations is the Nicaraguan Coordinator of Non-Governmental Organizations that Work with Children and Adolescents (Codeni), an entity that for years exposed the situation of vulnerability that this group of the population has experienced.
Codeni, established in 1992, and which brought together some 19 non-governmental organizations that ensured the defense of children and adolescents, had been in the sights of the Interior since August 2021, when said state institution notified it that it would make a visit to its offices to “review compliance with the purposes and objectives for which they were established and registered.”
In addition, the regime canceled the personality of the General José Dolores Estrada Foundation, the Association for Youth Development, the Civic Association for Democracy (ACD), the Once de Julio Liberal Political Training Institute Association, the Nicaraguan Association of Engineers and Architects , the Cantera Popular Communication and Education Center Foundation, the Nicaraguan Association of Cinematography.
In addition, the COEN Foundation, owned by businessman Piero Coen, the Tininiska Cultural Association (ACT), the Working Women’s Training Center Association, the Sutiaba Foundation for the Comprehensive Development of Indigenous Women, the Solentiname Development Association, created by the poet Ernesto Cardenal (RIP) in the eighties.
Related news: CPDH denounces the deteriorating health of lawyer María Oviedo
Added to the list are the Development and Social Responsibility Association (DRS), the Nicaraguan Foundation for the Promotion of Democracy, Peace, and the Development of Civil Society (Fundepaz), the Civil Association of Sugarcane Producers (Aprocari ), the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (Funglode), the Luisa Mercado Foundation (Funlum), directed by the Nicaraguan writer exiled in Spain, Sergio Ramírez Mercadothe Nicaraguan Academy Association of Legal and Political Sciences (ANCJP), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CDC), of which the opposition Azahalea Solis was a member.
Lastly, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega canceled the Apostamos por la Vida Foundation (Fundavida) and the Octupan Lugar de Grandes Caminos Association.
Once the legal entities of the organizations have been cancelled, the Department of Non-Profit Civil Associations of the Ministry of the Interior can proceed to cancel their registration, within a period not exceeding 72 hours.
More than 150 outlawed NGOs
In Nicaragua, with the vote of the Sandinista deputies and their allies, at least 150 Nicaraguan NGOs have been outlawed since December 2018, eight months after a popular revolt broke out over controversial social security reforms described as an attempt to coup by Ortega.
Among the most recent NGOs canceled is the Nicaraguan affiliate of Operación Sonrisas, which was annulled on March 17. According to human rights defenders and opponents, Ortega continues to impose his authoritarianism and wants to “eliminate any organization that does not align with his interests.”
