The National Assembly, dominated by the Sandinista Front, eliminated this Wednesday, July 27, the first hundred of 200 organizations, whose cancellations were requested through two decrees. Tomorrow it is expected to do the same with the other hundred.
The Ortega deputies approved with 75 votes in favor and 16 abstentions, the first decree of cancellation of NPOs, which was presented by deputy Filiberto Rodríguez, on July 21.
With this new round of outlawing, the Ortega regime will accumulate 1,280 NGOs canceled from December 2018 to date. 94% of these illegalizations occurred in the almost seven months of 2022, when Daniel Ortega intensified the dismantling of civil society.
Among the new NGOs canceled this Wednesday are: National Union Association of Micro, Small and Medium Industries, Services and Crafts; Association of Confiscated and Affected Argues Sequeira Mangas, Foundation for Rural Development, Central Sandino Association, Association of Legal Professionals, Center for Research and Studies of Central America, Association Center for Business Studies, Association of Care and Help for Cancer Patients Sister María Romero Meneses, among others.
Some of the associations and foundations that will be eliminated this Thursday, July 28, include the Association Center for Legal Assistance to Indigenous Peoples (Calpi), which advised the Rama indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities that make up the Rama and Kriol Territory in the Caribbean country. The Pawanka Foundation, the San Albino Coffee Growers Association, the National Comprehensive Development Association, the Casita Survivors Association, and the Nicaraguan Association of Maranon, among others, will also be affected. Here see the complete list.
The Ministry of the Interior (Migob) accuses the banned organizations of breaking three laws: Law 1115; Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations; Law 977, Against Money Laundering, the Financing of Terrorism, and the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Law 1040, on the Regulation of Foreign Agents.
They point out to the associations not to present the financial statements, “according to the fiscal periods with a detailed breakdown of income, expenses, trial balance and detail of donations, (origin, provenance and final beneficiary)”; They also did not report who makes up their boards of directors -in some cases they are headless, according to Migob-, previous donations from abroad, identity documents of their fund providers, and they did not comply with the registration as Foreign Agents.
In the avalanche of closed organizations, the Ortega regime has not discriminated against any type of NGO. It has canceled from charitable associations, such as the charitable works of the Missionaries of Charity, -whom it expelled from the country- to instances of great social impact and economic development such as the Livestock Exhibition of the Central American Isthmus (Expica), last week, which caused the unexpected cancellation of its annual fair -scheduled for July 21-30- and which brought together businessmen from Central America and other countries.
The losses are millions. According to a report from CONFIDENTIAL, investment in the fair around 400,000 dollars, 600,000 invested in cattle care, and pre-approved loans for five million dollars.
The Ortega regime has eliminated environmental, women’s rights, indigenous rights, children’s rights, education, cultural, humanitarian, productive and social development organizations.
More than 50,000 children and adolescents in Nicaragua have been affected for the massive closure of Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs), estimated last week, the Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the United States Department of State, which values the Ortega act as “shows his coldness towards the most vulnerable.”
The possibility of claiming by organizations with their legal status canceled is non-existent. The decrees are presented by the Ortega deputy Filiberto Rodríguez, who is the promoter of the bans. Then, they are approved by the Ortega steamroller.
