The Society of Jesus in Central America lamented the outlawing of two of its organizations in Nicaragua: the Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli Association (formerly known as the John XXIII Institute) and the Central American Historical Institute (IHCA). The Jesuits emphasize that both organizations had their corresponding documentation and “always complied with the law.”
On May 4, the National Assembly, with the favorable vote of 75 deputies, all from the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) caucus; approved the cancellation of legal personality of 50 NGOs. Among them, the two associations that belong to the Society of Jesus.
In the statement of reasons presented by the Ortega deputy Filiberto Rodríguez, it is indicated that the non-profit organizations “have failed to comply with their obligations,” including that they did not report their financial statements according to the fiscal periods.
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Supposedly, the NGOs are the object of these actions of the dictatorship because they have violated Law 147, General Law on non-profit legal entities and Law 977, Law against money laundering.
On May 9, the Ortega dictatorship made official in the Gazette, Official Gazette, number 83, the cancellation of the legal entities of both institutions belonging to the mission of the Society of Jesus in Nicaragua.
In a statement dated May 11, the Jesuits contradict the arguments of the Ortega regime. They assure that both the IHCA and the Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli Association “always observed and complied with the laws in force in Nicaragua.”
“The ethics, professionalism and moral solvency of both institutions and the staff who collaborated with them is more than proven by the beneficiaries of their respective missions,” they highlight.
The religious allege that despite the cancellation of the legal personality of two of their organizations “the Society of Jesus will continue with its mission of accompanying the Nicaraguan people.”
More than 40 years of work in Nicaragua
The Institute of Central American History (IHCA) was founded by the Jesuits in 1981 as a center for analysis, communication and social action, endorsing the evangelist option for the poorest in its service to the Nicaraguan people.
«For more than four decades, he dedicated himself to researching, analyzing and publicizing the national and Central American reality through the magazine Mensaje; to accompany training and organization processes with people wounded by war; to train boys, girls, adolescents and young people in leadership development; to accompany migrants and their families in the promotion and defense of their rights”, indicated the Society of Jesus in the letter.
On the other hand, the Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli Association “was founded in 1961 under the name of “Juan XXIII Institute for Research and Social Action”, being the first being the first institute of the nascent Central American University (UCA). In the 1980s, when the research was transferred to the faculties of the UCA, the name was delimited to “John XXIII Social Action Institute”. Later, in August 2015, in response to the development of the work and the mission, it changed its name to “Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli Association”a legal entity that had been established in 1994 by Fr. Antonio Fernández Ibáñez, SJ, then director of the Institute,” he explained.
The mission of this organization was to contribute to the “effective exercise of the human right of Nicaraguans to access decent housing and health, through sustainable management in the construction of social interest housing and the social sale of medicines; promoting in this process the capacity for self-management of people in their communities”.
The Jesuits point out that when the association closed its offices in Nicaragua “it was present throughout the national territory through its different programs; housing (50 municipalities, 3,857 homes built, 15,430 beneficiaries); health (66 municipalities, 122 social drug sales posts, 42 mobile brigades, 350,000 beneficiaries per year); of comprehensive ecology projects (110 communities, 17,740 benefited producers)».
