The Nicaraguan government outlaws another 1,500 NGOs and transfers their assets to the State

San Jose, Aug 19 (EFE).- Nicaragua on Monday cancelled the legal status of 1,500 associations that operated as non-profit organizations, including Catholic organizations, organizations defending sexual diversity, educational, social and retired military organizations, and ordered their assets to be transferred to the State.

With the closure of these 1,500 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), There are more than 5,200 organizations of this type that have been dissolved. following the popular protests that broke out in April 2018 in the Central American country.

This measure, unprecedented as it is the first time that 1,500 NGOs have been outlawed in a single act, comes three days after the Sandinista government announced that it will reform the way NGOs operate, which will now have to form “alliances” with state institutions to carry out their projects in the country.

“From now on, NGOs operating in Nicaragua will be governed by a new operating model that we have characterized as ‘partnership alliances,'” Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo said last Friday through official media.

The dissolution of these 1,500 organizations was approved by the Minister of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel, according to a ministerial agreement published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta de Nicaragua.

The Interior Ministry explained on Monday that it unilaterally closed the 1,500 NGOs for failing to comply with the laws that regulate them, “since they did not report their financial statements for periods of between 1 and 35 years according to fiscal periods, with detailed breakdowns of income and expenses, trial balance, details of donations and their boards of directors.”

NGO assets now pass to the State

Regarding the liquidation of the assets of the organizations, the Ministry of the Interior indicated that the Attorney General’s Office will be responsible for the transfer of movable or immovable property to the name of the State of Nicaragua.

Among the 1,500 NGOs that have been cancelled are the Caritas Diocesan Association of Granada, the Marian Association of the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Cuapa, the Teresian Carmelite Association of Nicaragua, the Tabernacle Baptist Association of Nicaragua Friends of Israel, the Tabernacle Biblical Baptist Association Light of Israel, the Association of Hispanic Evangelical Ministries Friends of Israel, the Rotary Club of Granada and the Casa de los Tres Mundos Foundation.

Also the National Livestock Commission of Nicaragua, Nicaraguan Union of Coffee Growers, Masatepe Coffee Growers Association, Nicaraguan Hotel Association, Nicaraguan Association for the Rights of Sexual Diversity, Autonomous Association of Women, Monimbó Indigenous Movement Association, Mayagna Sauni as Kaluduhna Association, and Association of Indigenous Disabled People of the Caribbean.

Likewise, the Camilo Ortega Association of Retirees and Pensioners, the Association of Men and Women Combatants of the Nicaraguan Resistance, the Association of Patriotic Military Service Fulfillers of the Department of León, the Foundation of Retired Senior Officers and Former Officers of the National Police, and the Nicaraguan Association of Parliamentary Journalists

Some Sandinista deputies, such as Filiberto Rodríguez, have said that the NGOs affected since 2018 used resources from the donations they received to try to overthrow President Daniel Ortega in the demonstrations six years ago.

The Sandinistas have also argued that the illegalization of these NGOs is part of a process of ordering because not all of the 7,227 that were registered in Nicaragua until 2018 were operating.

Nicaragua has been experiencing a political and social crisis since April 2018, which worsened after the controversial elections of November 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term – the fourth consecutive – with his main contenders in prison and then expelled from the country, depriving them of their nationality and political rights after accusing them of being “coup plotters” and “treason.”

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