The government of Daniel Ortega closed 169 NGOs on Thursday, including churches, schools and foundations. The United Nations Human Rights Organization described the measure as “extremely alarming.”
Nicaragua closed this Thursday 169 NGOs including child protection organization Save the Childrenin a new blow by the government of President Daniel Ortega against civil society groups.
Among the closed organizations There are also around 90 evangelical churches and associations, around 40 cattle breeders’ associations, a Catholic entity, a group of retired academics and the Foundation against Cancer and AIDS.
He Home Office ordered “the Cancellation of Legal Personality and Registration of 169 Non-Profit Organizations, for being in breach of the Laws,” says one resolution published in the official journal La Gaceta. According to current legislation, its estate will pass into the hands of the State.
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With these closures they rise to almost 5,500 organizations non-governmental closed by the Ortega government in recent years six years. Along with his powerful wifethe vice president Rosario Murillotightened laws against NGOs after protests Opponents of 2018, which in three months left more than 300 deadaccording to the United Nations (UN).
Nine days ago, the government closed 1,500 NGOsthe majority religiousa measure described as “extremely alarming” for the office of the UN for the Human Rights. Ortega, a 78-year-old former guerrilla who ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s and has been back in power since 2007, maintains that the NGOsand above all the Catholic church, supported the protests that he considers a attempted coup d’état sponsored by Washington.
In addition, on August 22, he entered into vigor in Nicaragua one new law which forces churches to pay taxes and establishes that NGOs can only work in “partnership alliances” with state entities. The Ortega government, which faces serious sanctions from the United States and the European Union that accuse it of authoritarian measures, has also closed radios and catholic universities.
Source: Ambito
