In a single blow, the National Assembly controlled by the government of President Daniel Ortega, in Nicaragua, has canceled to 25 important Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), as part of the campaign that the president has launched against civil society in recent years.
The canceled NGOs worked to strengthen civil society organizations, support journalism and defend human rights, among other causes.
Among those annulled, Nicaragua’s Operation Smile Association stands out, which had been operating in the country for more than 30 years and promoted surgeries for children with malformations.
Similarly, the Ethics and Transparency Civic Group, which had functioned as an electoral observer since 1996 in Nicaragua, was cancelled. This organization was under pressure and obstacles in recent years to cover the elections in the Central American country.
The Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation for Reconciliation and Democracy, which received significant funds from the US agency USAID, was also cancelled.
Its director, Cristiana Chamorro, who was sentenced recently for various charges, such as money laundering, said that the approval in 2020 of the Foreign Agents Law forced the entity to register with the Ministry of the Interior, for which it ceased operations.
The Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUNIDES), one of the main independent think tanks in the country, dedicated to conjunctural analysis, was also annulled. Several of the members of the Board of Directors suffered persecution by justice related to Ortega.
Likewise, the Alexander Von Humboldt Center (Humboldt Center) dedicated to the Promotion of Land Development and Environmental Management was cancelled.
The government’s argument
According to the argument of the Ministry of the Interior, which was the one who made the cancellation request to Parliament, said organizations, among other things, allegedly did not report their detailed financial statements, as well as the details of the donations. This argument has been used to nullify some 100 more organizations that have had the same fate.
What is Ortega looking for after this?
International organizations have rejected the closures of these entities and have said that what the Ortega government is seeking with this is to put an end to the organizations that “watch over health, education, civil rights and the protection of indigenous peoples.”
“It is a direct attack on the right to defend human rights” has considered the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), which operates clandestinely in Managua, after being canceled in 2018.
“In its actions lacking in sanity, the regime has shown once again that it is a threat to the people of Nicaragua, mired in poverty, disease and social injustice,” the organization added in a statement. disclosed in social networks.
For its part, the organization Nicaraguan Independent Journalists and Communicators (PCIN) has said that the “arbitrary” cancellations of the NGOs Association of Nicaraguan Journalists (APN) and the Violeta Barrios Foundation reflect “a greater deterioration of freedoms, especially to freedom of association and expression.
“From our organization we demand the reversal of these and other actions that violate the fundamental rights of society,” PCIN added in a statement.
Since 2018, Ortega undertook a persecution against the right of association, assures the dissidence, which was perfected after the approval of the Foreign Agents Act in October 2020, which establishes a rigorous registry for entities that receive support from abroad.
According to former deputy and political analyst Eliseo Núñez, the end of massive cancellations to civil society organizations, which he refers to as “an absolutely Machiavellian plan”, is basically designed to tear society into small pieces in order to have control. of everything.
“The annulment of the NGOs is due to this of having a society without organizational capacity so that it cannot face the dictatorship,” indicates Núñez in statements to the voice of america.
He also added that “Ortega does not admit any type of organization, be it political, civil society, trade union or in any other way”, since its purpose is “to generate a dispersion that also allows him to at the same time make the fear caused by his repressive forces is greater because there is a feeling of loneliness in the repressed.
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