Government of Nicaragua closes another 25 NGOs and the illegalized rise to 3,273

The government of Nicaragua, through the Ministry of the Interior, canceled this Friday the legal entities of another 25 NGOs, including five that requested their voluntary dissolution, among them the Russo-Nicaraguan Alliance that had been inactive since 2017.

The outlawing of these 25 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) was approved by the Minister of the Interior of that country, María Amelia Coronel, according to the ministerial agreement published in the Official Newspaper La Gaceta, of Nicaragua.

With the closure of those 25 NGOs There are 3,273 organizations of this type dissolved following the popular protests that broke out in April 2018.

In general, the Ministry of the Interior argued that it unilaterally closed 20 NGOs "for being abandoned and having between 2 and 15 years of non-compliance of their obligations in accordance with the Laws that regulate them”.

Among those affected are the Abandoned Children of Nicaragua Foundation, which has been operating since 2001, and which, according to the Ministry of the Interior, did not report its financial statements for the 2020-2021 period, and its board of directors had expired for a year.

Also the SOS Guardians of Children Foundation (FUGDI), which had been operating since 1995 and which "did not report financial statements for the period 2019 to 2021" and had its board of directors expired since last December.

In addition, the Association for the Benefits of Children in Situation of Risk of the Department of Carazo, Association of Carazo War Veterans, Association of Pensioners and Contributors of the Nicaraguan Social Security Regime, Association of Peasant Women for a New Hope, Association for the Social Development, Linda Humanitarian Aid Medical Brigade Foundation, among others.

On the other hand, the NGOs that requested their voluntary dissolution are the Association for the Promotion of Russian Language and Culture in Nicaragua "Russian-Nicaraguan Alliance", SOS Veterinary Foundation, Alberto and Berta Chamorro Foundation, Foundation for Sustainable Human Development, and Mildred Abaunza Nicaraguan Association of Social Workers.

Deputies Sandinistas like Filiberto Rodríguez have said that the affected NGOs used resources from the donations they received to try to overthrow the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, in the demonstrations that broke out in April 2018.

Thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets in April 2018 to protest controversial reforms to social security, which later became a demand for Ortega's resignation because he responded with force.

The protests left at least 355 deadaccording to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), although Nicaraguan organizations raise the figure to 684 and the Ortega government recognizes "more than 300."

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

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