Daniel Ortega's government will illegalize 101 NGOs in Nicaragua

The government ofDaniel Ortega presented a bill that seeks to outlaw 101 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Nicaragua.

HeSandinista National Liberation Front(FSLN) that governs that country wants to annul the legal personality of 101 civil organizations, among which is the Missionaries of Charity Association, of the Order of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Europa Press reported that the dissolution of the NGOs was proposed by the legislatorFiliberto Rodríguez.It will be discussed this Tuesday in the National Assembly. The institutions were dedicated to agricultural and environmental activities, support for youth and children, community development, religion, health, charity, and human rights.

Rodríguez said that theNGOs did not report about their financial statements, nor about the members of their boards of directors, nor have they detailed the donations they receive from abroad.

He accuses them ofbreach Nicaraguan legislation in particular of violating the Law on Non-Profit Legal Entities (Law 147), the Organic Law of the Legislative Branch or Law 606, and the Law Against Money Laundering, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Destruction Massive or law 977.

On June 25, the Ministry of the Interior ordered theclosure of institutions from the publication of the decree by the Legislative Branch. If the 101 NGOs are eliminated, the number of non-profit associations closed in the country will rise to 758, most of them during 2022.

DW He noted that the closure of institutions began in Nicaragua in December 2018, a few months after the popular revolt that was described by Ortega as an attempted coup d'état.

In the particular case of the Missionaries of Charity association, the Nicaraguan government assures that "it has failed to comply with its obligations." They are not accredited by the Ministry of Family to function as a daycare, girls' home or nursing home. They also do not have a permit from the Ministry of Education for learning actions.

This organization was created in the country in August 1988 during the first Sandinista regime (1979-1990).

At the end of May Ortega ordered the dissolution ofThe Nicaraguan Academy of Language, an organization with more than 94 years serving culture. On this occasion, it eliminated another 83 non-governmental organizations, with the pretext that they were not registered in the registry of “foreign agents.”

In March it eliminated other25 non-governmental organizations as part of a series of actions that the opposition classifies as "crusade by Daniel Ortega's government against civil society."

In February it wasuniversities' turn, outlawed seven private companies that joined five others closed the previous week and more than 80 institutions that will not be able to carry out their functions.

The argument of the Executive and Legislative powers is often the same: "They have failed to deliver financial reports to the Department of Registration and Control of Non-Profit Civil Associations."