Ortega´s grudge against civil society organizations and associations. Since 2018 there are now 67 closed down

Ortega´s grudge against civil society organizations and associations. Since 2018 there are now 67 closed down.

La Prensa, Dec 28, 2021

La Prensa presents an accounting of the NGOs and civil associations that had their legal status cancelled, with this year that is ending setting a new record: 57 eliminated. From 2018 to now there have been 67 cancelled. Three interviewees analyze the causes and effects.

Nicaragua will end this 2021 as the year in which the regime of Daniel Ortega executed a war without precedent against civil associations and national and international non-governmental organizations by cancelling their legal status through the National Assembly, and their records in the Ministry of the Interior, in order to make it impossible for them to continue operating in the country. In total there are 57 of them, of which 51 are national and 6 international associations from the United States and Europe.

And even though initially the assault happened at the end of 2018 in December, when the National Assembly, dominated by more than 70 deputies allied with Ortega, launched a “legal demolition campaign” against nine civil organizations in Nicaragua; in 2020 it went against one. During 2021, but particularly the month of July became the deadliest, it cancelled in one stroke the legal status of 24 organizations; in August another 15 national NGOs and 6 non-profits from the United States and Europe; and finally in December another 12 more.

The president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) – one of the nine NGOs stripped of their legal status in 2018 – Vilma Núñez de Escorcia, states that the attacks against non-governmental organizations and associations are considered a “violation of the right of association.”

“They have revoked all the legal statuses without any shape or form of a proceeding, it is part of the strategy of terror and dismantling social movements in Nicaragua, practically ignoring that NGOs have been a fundamental pillar in the development of the country and in the promotion of a series of actions and activities that are the competency of the State, as part of its duty of protecting and ensuring human rights”, denounced the president of CENIDH.

In July there were 24 NGOs

On July 28 the National Assembly with the vote of 72 deputies allied with the regime approved the suspension of the legal status of 24 civil society organizations – 15 of them with medical purposes – and also confiscated the assets of those who in their founding charters did not have their disposition planned for in the case of their disappearance.

This decree of cancellation of the legal status of 24 organizations will take effect with its publication in the official daily La Gaceta, and orders the Ministry of the Interior that in a term of no more than 72 hours to proceed with the “cancellation of the respective registration” of each organization “without any cost”. The affected NGOs are:

The Center for Social Studies and Promotion (CEPS) with legal status since April 30, 1990
The Parents and Educators Association of the Calasanz School of Managua (APEC), with legal status since January 1968.
The Association for Aid to those Sick with Chronic Renal Insufficiency-Las Segovias (ACIRC) with legal status since January 2011.
The Nicaraguan Association of Nephrology (ANINEF), with legal status since July 2010.
The International Association for Nicaraguan Health (AIS Nicaragua), with legal status since August 1999.
The Nicaraguan Association of Diabetology (ANIDIAB), with legal status since March 2012.
The Nicaraguan Association of Pneumology (ANINE), with legal status since October 2007.
The Nicaraguan Association of Perimenopause and Menopause, with legal status since March 2003
The Association Home of Hope, with legal status since February 2004
The Urological Association of Nicaragua (ASUNIC), with legal status since August 2008.
The Pier and Antonio Ferreiro Foundation, with legal status since July 1996.
The Social Club of Juigalpa, with legal status since May 1948.
The Association of Inhabitants of the Lomas de Montevideo Residences (APROLOM), with legal status since October 2016.
The Julio Cortázar National League Against Leukemia and Child Cancer, with legal status since June 1990.
The Nicaraguan Society of General Medicine (SONIMEG), with legal status since April 2007.
The Nicaraguan Association for Social Development
The Nicaraguan Medical Association (AMN), with legal status since November 1996.
The Nicaraguan Association for the Study and Treatment of Pain (ANETD), with legal status since October 2014.
The Nicaraguan Association for Dermatology and Syphilis (ASONIDEFI), with legal status since April 1996.
The Nicaraguan Association of Anesthesiology and Resuscitation (ANARE), with legal status since November 1996.
The Nicaraguan Association of Infectious Diseases (ANI) with legal status since October 2008.
The Nicaraguan Association of all for All and All for Nicaragua (ANICTONIC), with legal status since November 2000.
The Nicaraguan Association of Psychologists (ANIPS), with legal status since September 1981.
The XXI Foundation S-XXI, with legal status since July 1994.

The cancellation of the legal statuses of the organizations, many of them with more than a half century of existence, was approved through the cancellation of the decrees through which they had been given their legal status.

In the view of the president of CENIDH these actions show in practical terms the sole decision of Ortega to “raze everything to exercise complete control, he (Ortega) wants to have a State where nothing moves here, it is a replica of the authoritarian phase of Louis XIV, ´The State is I´, but here the State is all of us. It is an effort to achieve the destruction of the social association of the country, because having the population dispersed, the victims become vulnerable and are easier to destroy, it is part of the extermination that he wants to carry out.”

Along these lines, the political analyst and former Liberal deputy, Eliseo Nuñez, says that in these times Ortega is in a model of “initial plantation of a dictatorship, he already abandoned any procedure that might seem democratic, he already decided that this is something that he is not going to try to save even the appearance of, and he is operating under the framework of instilling the most terror possible.”

That fear, according to the expert, is executed by imprisonment, exile, cancellations of legal status, “everything is part of the same script to the point that everyone believes that it is impossible to confront him, because he can do anything, it is a little of what was seen during the first five years of Fidel Castro in Cuba in the 1960s, except that this time we find Ortega more elderly, a withering party, there are many differences that I believe do not predict a good ending.”

In August there were 15 organizations

And just one month later, in August of this year, the Sandinista deputies in the National Assembly prepared a bill to cancel the legal statuses of 15 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), among them the Nicaraguan Network Federation for Democracy and Local Development (Red Local), which has legal status since November 24, 2006, an organization that has suffered the onslaught of the Ortega regime for two years.

The other NGOs which were affected by the Ortega National Assembly were:

The Nicaraguan Institute for Popular Education and Research (INIEP), with legal status since April 16, 1990 and located in Managua.
The Soy Association of Nicaragua (SOYNICA), with legal status since September 25, 1990.
The Christian Medical Association, with legal status since September 18, 1990 and located in Managua.
The Association of the Women´s Collective of Matagalpa, with legal status approved on April 5, 1990 and located in Matagalpa.
The Central American Institute of Social Integration (ICIS) with legal status approved since July 27, 2004 and located in Managua.
The Center for Studies on Governance and Democracy (CEGODEM) with legal status approved on August 23, 2007 and located in Managua.
The Federation of Non Governmental Organizations (ONG-Nicaragua) with legal status approved since March 28, 1990 and located in Managua.
The Diakonia Federation of Nicaragua with legal status approved by the National Assembly on January 14, 2005 and located in Managua.
The Between Volcanos Foundation, with legal status approved on June 27, 1994 located in Managua.
The Dr. Concepción Palacios Nicaraguan Doctors Foundation (FUMEDNIC) with legal status since July 18, 1996 and located in Managua.
The Mejia Godoy Foundation, with legal status approved on July 30, 1996 located in Managua.
The Xochiquetzal Foundation, with legal status approved on April 17, 1990 located in Managua.
The Institute for Social Research and Management (INGES) with legal status approved on July 18, 1996 located in Managua.
The Oyanka-Jalapa Women´s Association Against Violence (OYANKA), with legal status since October 29, 1998 located in the municipality of Jalapa in the Nueva Segovia province.

The bill, signed by the deputy of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation, Filiberto Rodríguez, argues that the cancellation of the legal status of these entities “is presented in virtue of the fact of the request for the cancellation presented by Sra. Franya Urey Blandón, the director of the Department of Registry and Control of Associations of the Ministry of the Interior, where the violations of the law that the legal representatives of the Association have committed are shown.

For her part, the activist Haydee Castillo, president of the Leadership Institute of the Segovias, whose legal status was cancelled in December 2018, says that the closing of the organizations shows that the regime of Ortega “knows that its model collapsed, that it no longer has legitimacy neither externally nor internally, and with these measures is trying to close off any possibility of participation of the citizenry in the affairs of the nation, closing all possibility that the population might know their rights, promote them and defend them, because that is the mission that the affairs of these NGOs had in the different territories and sectors where they used to operate.”

Nuñez de Escorcia adds that in her view Ortega “wants to have them subjugated so that they do not fulfill their policies, but that he wants them to be channels for collecting international funds to give to him, it is one of the extremes of the perversion and violation of human rights that he has, here is the escalation, first he destroyed nine, then one, later more including international ones to remove them from his path, in a persecutory attitude without reason. There is no more profound reason beyond his obsession.”

While Castillo points out that once again Ortega is confirming “his nature of being a regime far from the citizenry, rights and democracy. He confirms that it is a regime of an absolutist, dictatorial style and that acts in the same way that organized crime does outside of any legal parameters and national and international legal frameworks.”

In December he stripped 12 associations

In December the Ortega regime continued with its attack and on December 13^th the regime, through its bench of pro-government deputies in the National Assembly, decided to strip the International Foundation for the Global Economic Challenge (FIDEG) of its legal status, which the economist and businessman Alejandro Martínez Cuenca leads, through a Decree which was presented to the National Assembly this past November 30^th.

FIDEG emerged in 1990 with the objective of carrying out social and economic studies, according to their webpage. One of their principal studies is the Household Survey for Measuring Poverty in Nicaragua, which it has done since 2009.

That same day the dictatorship ordered the elimination of the legal status of the Hispano American Univeristy (UHISPAM) and the Nicaraguan Council of Small and Medium Enterprise (CONIMIPYME).

Both organizations are led by the Sandinista Leonardo Torres who is also a member of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Nicaragua. The petition was made by the Ministry of the Interior alleging that they had not presented their financial statements for 2020, as well as a report on the donations that both organizations receive.

And one day later, they approved the cancellation of the legal status of nine nonprofit civil associations, among them:

Las Colinas Country Club
Alumni Association of INCAE of Nicaragua (AGI Nicaragua)
Association of Consultants for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprise (ACODEP)
Association of Economists of Nicaragua
Nicaraguan Chamber of Small and Medium Tourism Industry (CANTUR)
Veritas Foundation
Hispano American Foundation (F.HISPAN)
Tourism Foundation (FUTURISMO)
Superior Coordinator of Private Universities (COSUR)

MIGOB cancelled the registration of six international NGOs

In addition to the National Assembly, the regime of Daniel Ortega used the Ministry of the Interior (MIGOB) this year to eliminate the registry and numbers this past August 16^th of six nonprofit organizations from the United States and Europe, after accusing them of impeding the internal controls of the country.

On that occasion the NGOs affected were:

The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) from the United States, which was registered in the country since February 15, 2006.
The International Republican Institute (IRI) from the United States, registered since April 14, 2004.
OXFAM Intermon Foundation from Spain, registered since March 10, 2000.
OXFAM IBIS from Denmark, registered since December 4, 2002.
DIAKONIA from Sweden, registered since November 12, 2007.
The Warren William Pagel M.D. Helping Hands Foundation from the United States, registered since October 29, 2001.

The decision was made “for impeding the control and oversight of the Department for the Registration and Control of Associations of the Ministry of the Interior, not complying with the laws of these matters in Nicaragua.”

Like the national organizations, the department for the Registration and Control of Associations of MIGOB accuses them of not reporting financial statements in accordance with fiscal periods nor boards of directors in their countries of origin. In addition of not complying with the legal requirements established for the reception of donations and reporting to MIGOB the procedures prior to their reception.

MIGOB argues in addition that the six organizations who had their registrations cancelled do not have the identity documents of their suppliers of funds and that their beneficiaries and associated organizations do not have a good reputation.

In 2020 they eliminated the legal status of ASODHERMU

The Association of Municipal Sister Relations (ASODHERMU), a nonprofit organization that supported social projects in Camoapa, Chontales, since 2009, was stripped of its legal status in 2020. According to the Sandinista deputies, at that moment the Ministry of the Interior (MIGOB) which regulates nonprofit organizations informed them that ASODHERMU supposedly did not fulfill the requirements of the law, by not presenting their financial reports and in this way impeding the oversight of their work.

These accusations were rejected by Heberto Mejía Solórzano, president of ASODHERMU, who argued that the NGO had presented on time all their financial reports, even extra information that MIGOB requested.

The nine of 2018

In December 2018 there were nine NGOs whose legal status was cancelled by the Ortega deputies. The associations had worked on documenting and denouncing the crimes committed on the part of the Police and paramilitaries, since the outbreak of the protests of April 2018. At least six of the nine non governmental organizations began in the 1990s and some had the participation or leadership of dissident figures of the FSLN.

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) was founded in 1990. Its president is Vilma Núñez de Escorcia
The Institute for Strategic Studies and Public Policies (IEEPP), founded in 2003. Its executive director was Félix Maradiaga
Hagamos Democracia was created in 1995 and had its legal status eliminated on December 12, 2018. It was accused of using its structure to facilitate funds for groups to commit alleged terrorist acts.
The Center for Information and Services of Consultancy on Health (CISAS) was founded in 1983. Its director is Ana Quirós,m one of the voices critical of the regime, an activist and defender of women´s rights.
The Center for Communication Research (CINCO) was created in 1990 and its director was Sofía Montenegro.
The Institute for Development and Democracy (IPADE) founded in 1990, was also stripped of its legal status. Its director was Mauricio Zúñiga
The Popol Na Foundation was founded in 1990 and its president was Monica Baltodano. The same day as the raids on the other NGOS Popol Na was raided.
The Foundation for the Conservation and Development of the Southeast of Nicaragua (Fundación Río) founded in 1990, also was stripped of its legal status. Led by Amaru Ruiz.
The Leadership Institute of the Segovias founded in 2010 and under the leadership of Haydée Castillo Flores.

Finally the activist in exile Castillo recognizes that it was left clear that the NGOs as part of civil society play an extraordinary role in Nicaragua, and “have tremendous closeness to the needs of the people, the territories, the peasantry, women, small and medium enterprises, environmental struggles, violence prevention, and it fears that good example in the face of a regime whose politics are based more on patronage, terror, manipulation and perks, far from building citizenship and a culture of rights.”