Q24N — The Nicaraguan government announced on Monday the closure of 12 non-profit organizations (NGOs), bringing the total to 5,600 that have been closed since the 2018 protests against Daniel Ortega.
According to the resolution published in the official newspaper La Gaceta, the NGOs closed include the Swiss Foundation for Technical Development Cooperation, two religious organizations, two medical organizations and a sports organization.
The others canceled include:
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- Asociación Instituto de Estudios Superiores del Sindicalismo de Centro América y el Caribe (IESSCA)
- Asociación Ministerio Aquí Estamos (MAE)
- Asociación Antorcha
- Asociación de Familias y Amigos de Personas con Autismo en Nicaragua (VIDAY AUTISMO)
- Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo
- Hope Clinic International
- Asociación Nacional de Béisbol de Alto Rendimiento (ANABAR Y/O LBPN)
- Fundación Cristiana Sustento y Abrigo (FUNCRISYA)
- Mayflower Medical Outreach Inc
- Organización Stichting “El Árbol”
Ortega, a 79-year-old former guerrilla who governed Nicaragua in the 1980s and has been back in power since 2007, maintains that these entities, and especially the Catholic Church, supported the protests of 2018, which he considers an attempted coup sponsored by the United States government.
According to a study published at the end of October by the Nicaragua Never Again Collective, which works from exile in Costa Rica, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has eliminated more than 70% of the Non-Profit Organizations that existed in Nicaragua. Of the 7,227 NGOs that existed until 2017, more than 5,244 have been closed.
The government argued that these organizations did not present their financial statements and expropriated their assets.
In the case of the groups closed on Monday, official information indicated that the closures were due to “voluntary dissolution of members,” “lack of financing” or “due to having completed a portfolio of projects.”
The Ortega government recently toughened the laws against NGOs and established that they can only work in Nicaragua in “partnership alliances” with state entities.
The measure was described as “extremely alarming” by the UN Human Rights office.
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The 2018 protests lasting three months left more than 300 dead and thousands in exile, according to the United Nations.
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