Nicaragua: Government Dissolves 1,500 NGOs

Vatican News

The Nicaraguan government has revoked the legal status of 1,500 NGOs present in the country, transferring their assets to the state. The decision, approved by the Minister of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel, and published in the Official Gazette of Nicaragua, was taken, as indicated, due to the NGOs’ failure to comply with certain obligations, such as submitting “for periods of one to 35 years, their budgets by financial period, with a detailed breakdown of revenues and expenses, the balance of payments, details of donations, and their boards of directors.” The organizations, according to independent websites such as 100% Noticias and La Prensa, which did not receive any prior notice, are accused by the government of obstructing the oversight of the Ministry of the Interior. Under the agreement in force until now, the Attorney General’s Office will be responsible for transferring movable and immovable assets on behalf of the Nicaraguan state.

NGOs are obliged to cooperate with the state.

Press sources highlight that this mass closure comes in the wake of Vice President Rosario Murillo’s announcement of a “new model of alliances between NGOs and the government”, whereby organizations are now, in order to carry out their projects, “obliged to submit programs or projects and collaborate with state institutions”. Furthermore, exemptions have been eliminated. The majority of the closed NGOs belong to evangelical denominations, including Catholic ones, among others, Caritas of the Archdiocese of Granada. The list also includes charitable, sports and indigenous associations. With this latest measure, unprecedented, and for the first time, in a single law, 1,500 organizations have been declared illegal, and NGOs have been dissolved since 2018, the beginning of the popular protests, and now number more than 5,200.