The government of Nicaragua closes another 25 non-governmental organizations

Government of Nicaraguathrough Ministry of Internal Affairscanceled this Friday to legal entities dr 25 non-governmental organizationsincluding five that have requested their voluntary dissolution, including the Russian-Nicaragua alliance that has been inactive since 2017.

The outlawing of these 25 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was approved by the country’s interior chief, María Amelia Coronel, according to a ministerial agreement published in Nicaragua’s Official Gazette.

With the closure of these 25 non-governmental organizations, 3,273 organizations of this type were dissolved following the popular protests that broke out in April 2018.

In general, Ministry of Internal Affairs it claimed that it had unilaterally closed 20 associations “because they were abandoned and had between 2 and 15 years of non-compliance with their obligations under the laws that regulate them”.

They are among those affected Abandoned Children of Nicaragua Foundationwhich has been operating since 2001, and which, according to the Ministry of Interior, has not published financial reports for the period 2020-2021, and its one-year term of office has also expired.

Also the Foundation SOS Children’s Guardians (FUGDI), which has been operating since 1995 and which “did not submit financial reports for the period from 2019 to 2021” and its mandate on the board of directors expired last December.

In addition, the Association for the Welfare of Children at Risk of the Department of Carazo, the Association of War Veterans of Carazo, the Association of Pensioners and Social Security Payers of Nicaragua, the Association of Peasant Women of New Hope, the Association for Social Development, the Linda Humanitarian Aid Medical Brigade Foundation, among others.

VICTIMS OF THE SOCIO-POLITICAL CRISIS

And the non-governmental organizations that requested their voluntary dissolution are the Association for the Promotion of the Russian Language and Culture in Nicaragua “Russian-Nicaraguan Alliance”, the SOS Veterinary Foundation, the Alberto and Berta Chamorro Foundation, the Foundation for Sustainable Human Development and the Nicaraguan Association of Social Workers Mildred Abaunza.

Sandinista lawmakers like Filiberto Rodríguez said the affected NGOs used funds from donations they received to try to oust Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, in protests that erupted in April 2018.

Thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets in April 2018 to protest controversial social security reforms, which later turned into demands for Ortega’s resignation as he responded with force.

At least 355 people died in the protests Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)although Nicaraguan organizations raise the figure to 684 and Ortega’s government admits “more than 300”.

The Sandinistas also argued that the illegalization of these NGOs was part of the ordering process, since not all of them were 7,227 which until 2018 were registered in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua has since been going through a political and social crisis, which worsened after the controversial general elections on November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second together with his wife Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with the main competitors in prison or in exile.