Nicaragua on Thursday closed 169 NGOs, including the child protection organization Save the Children, in a new blow by the government of President Daniel Ortega against civil society groups.
The organizations closed include some 90 evangelical churches and associations, some 40 cattle breeders’ associations, a Catholic entity, a group of retired academics and the Foundation Against Cancer and AIDS.
The Ministry of the Interior ordered “the cancellation of the legal status and registration of 169 non-profit organizations, for failing to comply with the laws,” says a resolution published in the official newspaper La Gaceta. According to current legislation, their assets will be transferred to the State.
These closures bring to almost 5,500 the number of non-governmental organizations closed by the Ortega government in the last six years.
The government of Ortega and his powerful wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, put up with anti-NGO laws after opposition protests in 2018, which left more than 300 dead in three months, according to the UN.
Nine days ago, the government closed 1,500 NGOs, most of them religious, a measure described as “extremely alarming” by the UN Human Rights Office.
Related news: Ministry of the Interior cancels another package of more than 160 NGOs
Ortega, a 78-year-old former guerrilla who ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s and has been back in power since 2007, says NGOs and especially the Catholic Church are supporting the protests, which he considers an attempted coup sponsored by Washington.
In addition, a new law came into effect in Nicaragua on August 22, requiring churches to pay taxes and establishing that NGOs may only work in “partnership alliances” with state entities.
The Ortega government, which faces sanctions from the United States and the European Union accusing it of authoritarian measures, has also closed Catholic radio stations and universities.
