Prohibition of NGOs: “In Nicaragua whoever raises their voice is completely at risk”
In Deutsche Welle August 18, 2021
With the prohibition of 40 NGOs the government of Daniel Ortega continues cutting off individual liberties and reducing civil participation in the face of the November elections, trying to “instill fear.”
In Nicaragua the government of Daniel Ortega has already suspended 40 NGOs since 2018. After three decades of work on human rights, the environment and poverty, these organizations see themselves forced to abandon their work in the country.
The Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents, which took effect in October 2020 prohibits active non governmental organizations in the country from receiving international donations and financing. In this way, not just international humanitarian organizations, but also local organizations which they support, are left without resources and can no longer carry out their humanitarian task.
The wave of cancelations of NGOs began in 2018 in the midst of the repression of social protests when the Parliament terminated the legal status of nine of them, including the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center (CENIDH), under the accusation of promoting “terrorist and coup activities.” On Monday (Aug 16, 2021) the government of Nicaragua cancelled the registration of another six NGOs, three Europeans, among them OXFAM Intermon (Spain) and OXFAM Ibis (Denmark) and three from the US, like the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI).
The continuity of a repressive regime
In July 2021 the legislative chamber cancelled the legal status of 24 organizations, 15 of them medical associations. The government of Nicaragua turned a deaf ear to the rejection of the measure manifested at that moment by professionals, who warned about the dangerous hole that these organizations would leave in the area of health. According to reports, the government did not want scientists to monitor the development of the COVID-19 pandemic, nor to report on it or criticize their management.
“This is a product of the continuity of a repressive regime, a violator of human rights which does not want the existence of critical voices within the country,” said the Nicaraguan lawyer Wendy Flores to DW, the coordinator of the Nicaragua Never More Collective for the Defense of Human Rights, from exile in Costa Rica.
The government of Ortega did not just silence the media and journalists, as well as local organizations which even before 2018 had worked for decades for the defense of human rights, but also international organizations that have supported and been committed to democracy and respect for human rights in the country, she explained.
In 2020 the opposition made an attempt to file legal recourses against that law, but they were unfruitful, and Ortega continued with the prohibitions.
“We have been working for 40 years in Nicaragua, and we have always respected the national legislation,” said Simon Ticehurst, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean for Oxfam International, from their headquarters in Mexico in an interview with DW. “We are processing the decision. There is a certain amount of confusion in terms of the requirements of the government, which do not apply to international NGOs, and we are trying to clarify this also through legal channels.” Ticehurst highlights that they are working on ensuring the security of the staff of the NGO, and their commitments with partner organizations, as well as with the donor community.
The Nicaraguan government ordered organizations to turn over their books and liquidate their assets in a lapse of 72 hours. “They are not given the opportunity for these decisions to be reversed by a competent judicial authority through a constitutional legal challenge,” indicated the lawyer Wendy Flores, who was part of CENIDH.
Civil society left without support
Two of the NGOs terminated on August 16th worked on strengthening citizen participation in political and electoral processes and on the development of capacities for political management. Others focused on gender rights, the empowerment of vulnerable groups of children, adolescents, and women, and on the fight against economic and social inequality.
How does this directly affect Nicaraguans? “This pattern remains since 2018. With the disappearance of organizations, women are more vulnerable because the State has dismantled, among other institutions, the police offices for women, in other words, that women victims of violence are left without accompaniment and psychological attention. The same happens with organizations that defend labor rights, workers have nowhere to go,“ specified Flores.
“Every democracy needs a vibrant, active civil society and we deplore these decisions because they restrict civic space,” highlighted Simon Ticehurst. The economic situation of Nicaragua is already complicated by itself, he added, also in humanitarian terms.
“Aid plays an important role of support for the Nicaraguan population. Several of our projects are humanitarian, be that responding to the drought, as well as in preparation for the hurricane season, very common at this time,” he clarified. “This is a difficult moment for the Nicaraguan people.” Economists had predicted already in 2020 that the Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents was going to scare off foreign investment and international aid, increasing poverty even more.
Prohibitions on NGOs in light of sanctions and the elections
The recent cancelations of NGOs is happening precisely when the US and the European Union are trying to increase pressure on the government imposing sanctions on its closest circle so that 23 dissidents who were arrested might be released. And it happens a few months before the November 2021 elections, for which Ortega practically has disbarred the opposition with the imprisonment of eight candidates so far.
“We must remember that in Nicaragua there are more than 140 political prisoners,” said Wendy Flores. “They have the right to freedom, they cannot remain on their own in the hands of Ortega and Murillo. We have to continue doing this work of denouncement, in the conditions that exist, within the country and outside of it.”
With the termination of the NGOs “Daniel Ortega wants to send a message that they are the ones in charge, and to stay in power. For these elections in November they want to create a climate of hopelessness, leave fear instated through political and penal persecution in Nicaragua,” maintains the lawyer of Never More Nicaragua. A repression which is directed, through the Prosecutor´s office, “an instrument of the repression”, against activists, defenders and journalists. “In Nicaragua whoever raises their voice is completely at risk,” she emphasizes. “People are terrorized, there is hyper vigilance. The feeling of insecurity and lack of liberty has increased, and the social fabric is being rent.”
“We have to obey the resolution of the government. We will explore how to continue collaborating with the people of Nicaragua, if not from within the country, from outside of it, and how to be able to continue working in Nicaragua in the future, when the situation allows it. All these measures call into question the electoral process, in terms of being able to offer an outcome and solution to the crisis,” concluded the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of Oxfam International.