The crusade of the Daniel Ortega regime against civil society organizations will continue next week in the National Assembly, where there is already —on the order of May 17— an initiative for a Legislative Decree for the Cancellation of Legal Personalities of 25 associations and Non-profit civil foundations. Document that, when approved, will raise to 169 the number of canceled NGOs by the regime so far in 2022.
Among the 25 NGOs that will be outlawed next Tuesday are the Foundation for the Rescue of Young People in Gangs, the Meeting Points Foundation for the Transformation of Daily Life, the Association for the Accompanied Integral Development of Nicaragua and its Communities, the Full Life Association (ASOVIP), Ministry Association Generation without Code and New Hope and Life Foundation (FNEV).
The Association Lazos de Amor y Esperanza (ASLAE), the Association for the Institute of Studies for Governance and Democracy, the Association for the Nicaraguan Cement and Concrete Institute (INCYC), the Nicaraguan Civil Foundation for Conservation and Development (FUNCOD), the Guidance Center for the Exportation of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (COEMIPYME) and the Association for Masaya Primero (PMP).
Other affected organizations They are: Municipal Youth Network Association of Nueva Guinea (RMJ-NG), Center for International Relations Foundation (CRI), Civil Foundation for the Support of Women Victims of Violence, Association of Ladies Lawyers of Nicaragua (ASAN), Central Association for Democratic Participation and Development and the Center for Studies and Training Association for Democratic Governance and Sustainable Development.
In addition, the Foundation for Low-Cost Environmentalist Housing Development Bamboo, Palm and Adobe of Nicaragua will be outlawed; Human Interconnection Foundation, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Foundation; Peasant Forest Development Association (ADEPROFOCA), Alternative Center Association for Women Survivors of Violence Izel, Women’s Foundation for Development and Democracy of Nicaragua (FUMDENIC), American Association of Agrochemicals of Nicaragua (ANIC) and Foundation for the Development of the Reconstructive Surgery in Nicaragua (NICAPLAST).
The motives of the regime
The imminent cancellation of the 25 organizations in the National Assembly, controlled by Ortega, responds to a request made by the head of the General Directorate of Registration and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, of the Ministry of the Interior (Migob), Franya Urey Blandón, who accuses them of having “failed to comply with their legal obligations” and “acted against express law.”
The laws they allegedly broke all NGOs are Law 1115 or General Law for the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, approved last April; as well as Law 977 or Law against Money Laundering, Financing Terrorism and Financing the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and its regulations, for which the Migob representative demanded its cancellation.
According to Blandón, the NGOs would not have presented their financial statements according to fiscal periods with detailed breakdowns (income, expenses, trial balance, details of donations, origin, provenance and final beneficiary)”; he also points out to them that they have expired boards of directors and that they are not accountable for previous donations from abroad.
“With these actions, the aforementioned NGOs have hindered the control and surveillance of the Department of Registration and Control of Associations of the Ministry of the Interior,” warns the legislative initiative presented by deputy Filiberto Rodríguez. “By not reporting their financial reports according to fiscal periods and with detailed breakdowns, they did not promote a transparency policy in the administration of the funds, not knowing their execution and if they were in accordance with their objectives and purposes, for which they were granted Personality Legal”, he adds.
against freedom of association
Contrary to the official truth, the directors of organizations canceled in recent months point out that on repeated occasions the Ministry of the Interior refused to receive the requested documentation and every time they showed up at the Migob windows they required new papers.
Sociologist María Teresa Blandón, director of La Corriente, one of the NGOs canceled last May 4, described the decision of the deputies as “an illegal act” because it violates the constitutional right to freedom of association and highlighted the work that organizations develop in the vacuum generated by the State, mainly with women and groups of sexual diversity.
Blandón added that this attack against civil organizations responds to a “policy of devastation, of silencing”, and that it seeks to “deactivate us, demobilize us and impose a single form of participation, a single form of organization that is controlled by the regime. It is part of a typical policy of authoritarian governments”, he denounced.
Two weeks earlier, on April 20, the executive secretary of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), Marcos Carmona, denounced that the Nicaraguan Government It made humanitarian organizations illegal to prevent them from documenting abuses of authority and recalled that the NGO had tried to deliver its documents to the Ministry of the Interior and that the Ministry refused to receive them.
“There is no will, on the part of the Government, that there are human rights organizations that are documenting the abuses that are committed in this country,” said Carmona, at a press conference.
