The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, which has already definitively disappeared university autonomy and now manipulates higher education in the country at will, ordered this week to take from these educational institutions more than 800 million córdobas from their annual budget, which will be deducted of their amounts destined for current expenses.
The Sandinista Executive ordered the publication in La Gaceta, Official Gazette, number 234 of this December 18, Law 1231, which modifies the annual law of the General Budget of the Republic (PGR) 2024, to remove billions of córdobas from at least 20 state entities, including the country’s universities and higher technical education institutions, now under absolute control of the Sandinistas.
In accordance with article 1, section I, section 6.7, the 2024 budget of universities and higher technical training centers is reduced by 735.7 million córdobas, which will be deducted from their current expenses.
In addition, section 6.8 establishes that 99 million córdobas will be deducted from their current expenses for the consumption of “electric energy, water and national telephony” only for the Universities.
In total, the dictatorship snatches, in the last days of the year, 834.7 million córdobas from universities and higher technical centers, which represents approximately 4.8% of the 2024 university budget, which was C$8,028.2 million.
The Political Constitution of Nicaragua, still in force, in its article 125, first paragraph, establishes that “Universities and Higher Technical Education Centers enjoy academic, financial, organic and administrative autonomy, in accordance with the law.”
The same article in its fourth paragraph defines that “Universities and Higher Technical Education Centers, according to the law, must be financed by the State, will receive an annual contribution of 6% of the General Budget of the Republic, which will be distributed in accordance with the law. “The State may grant additional contributions for extraordinary expenses of said universities and higher technical education centers.”
With the total constitutional reform, disguised as partial, which was already approved by the Sandinista National Assembly in the first legislature, Article 125 of University Autonomy is repealed, thus marking the end of a history of university struggle that left several murdered students and which also became a Sandinista flag to send university students to destabilize previous governments.
Ortega has made progress throughout his mandate in subjugating teaching and administrative unions, as well as the student union, and has brought to their knees the universities that no longer have any possibility of protesting in the streets as they did in the past. The current dictator has ended up strangling and burying university autonomy.
UNEN Student Movement is now official
The student movement, which was once the guardian of the university budget and which reacted with notable belligerence to government attempts to reduce the budget for the universities, now looks “castrated”, non-existent and absolutely submissive, lamented a former university student who asked to comment on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, for the Nicaraguan student leader in exile, Yunova Acosta, the reduction of the university budget and Higher Technical Education centers in the general reform of the PGR reflects not only one more blow by the Ortega regime to education in Nicaragua because it does not It not only eliminated university autonomy but now limits financial resources even more, directly impacting the quality of education and the operating conditions of these institutions.
«The reduction of these 735 million in current expenses and an additional 99 million only for basic services is a systematic strategy of weakening the educational sector that is essential for the development of the country and this cut not only affects universities and technical centers but also Those directly affected are the students who see their right to accessible and quality education compromised,” criticized the student leader.
Acosta recalled that the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship has systematically attacked higher education since before 2018 and that in these years it has closed at least 28 universities.
Likewise, he warned that the critical situation of higher education in Nicaragua is not only a budget issue. What is currently happening is “a clear example of how the regime prioritizes political control over the academic and professional development of our Nicaraguan youth.”
Likewise, the exiled student leader pointed out that the dictatorship, by ending university autonomy and controlling the university budget at will, what is disappearing is “academic freedom, freedom of expression, and freedom of thought.”
Acosta regretted that Ortega’s outrages against the educational system in the country have long been causing many young people to be forced to look for other opportunities in other countries “to obtain a quality education, to obtain a critical space where they have freedom of expression.” thought”.
