Nicaragua on Monday canceled the legal status of 18 business associations, including the Higher Council for Private Enterprise (COSEP), which brings together other employer chambers.
The decision of the Ministry of the Interior (Interior), published in the official newspaper La Gaceta, deprives practically all business associations in the country of legal status and adds to other measures by the leftist government of Daniel Ortega that have earned him international isolation.
According to the resolution, COSEP and the other associations “did not complete the registration validation process, presenting inconsistencies in the information” of financial statements, without detail of income and expenses or without support for them.
“With these actions, these organizations do not promote transparency policies in the administration and management of their funds; likewise, they have not reported financial statements in the fiscal period 2022”, maintains the resolution issued by the Minister of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel Kinloch, on March 3.
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Among the unions canceled are the associations of Coffee Exporters, Agricultural Producers, the Textile and Clothing Industry, as well as the Chambers of Developers, Construction, Fisheries, Microfinance, Commerce and Services, Industries and Tourism.
– Distancing –
COSEP has accompanied Ortega’s administration since he returned to power in 2007, but both parties distanced themselves after the 2018 political crisis, marked by street protests against the government and clashes between opposition protesters and pro-government supporters.
After the 2018 protests, the president of COSEP, Adán Aguerri, was arrested in 2021 as part of a wave of repression that led to more than 200 opponents being jailed and the closure of more than 2,000 non-governmental organizations.
On February 9, the government released 222 imprisoned opponents, including Aguerri, and expelled them to the United States, while stripping them of their nationality and confiscating their property.
COSEP considered the release of the 222 prisoners as “a big step to initiate the unity of the Nicaraguan family.”
Adán Aguerri, 62, had been sentenced to 13 years in prison in August 2022 for crimes of treason. Other directors of business chambers affiliated with COSEP suffered a similar fate.
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Nicaraguan justice also stripped 94 exiled opponents of their nationality on February 15, including the writers Gioconda Belli and Sergio Ramírez, in an act that generated harsh international criticism.
Several governments offered to grant nationality to those affected.
– Association of Banks –
On February 3, the Ortega government had stripped the Association of Private Banks and 16 other entities of their legal status, including the Association of Central Market Merchants and the Central American Association of Ibero-American Breed Horse Breeders.
Law 1115, in force since May 2022, regulates non-profit organizations and establishes that in case of non-compliance, the government can deprive them of their legal status and take control of their assets.
