No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeTopicsLatin AmericaNicaragua's Repression Deepens: 1,500 More NGOs Closed Amid Political Crackdowns

Nicaragua’s Repression Deepens: 1,500 More NGOs Closed Amid Political Crackdowns

Nicaragua on Monday shuttered 1,500 NGOs, bringing to more than 5,000 the number of such entities scrapped in a crackdown on opponents by President Daniel Ortega.

The government has jailed hundreds of critics, real and perceived, since protests against his regime in 2018 that were met with a crackdown the UN said left more than 300 people dead. Monday’s announcement was the single-largest targeting of NGOs to date, bringing the total to more than 5,100.

Charges against the latest batch of entities, most of them religious, are that they had failed to declare their income, according to a government notice. They will have their assets seized. Ortega’s government considers the 2018 protests an attempted coup d’etat promoted by the United States and backed by the religious community. Last week, it passed a regulation requiring NGOs to work exclusively in “partnership alliances” with state entities.

The Nicaraguan Red Cross and several Catholic charities are among the NGOs shuttered to date, with many hit by charges dismissed as spurious. Other targets have included rotary and chess clubs, sports associations and groupings of small traders, rural people and pensioners, as well as Catholic radio stations and universities.

Ortega’s wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, has described religious people as “children of the devil” or “agents of evil” who carry out “spiritual terrorism.”

Persistent repression

Last month, a group of United Nations experts slammed “systematic and widespread abuses of international human rights law” in the Central American country.

At the end of 2023, some 30 clerics were imprisoned and later ejected from the country and sent to the Vatican. Also last year, the government expelled more than 300 politicians, journalists, intellectuals and activists, accusing them of treason.

At least 263 journalists have been forced to leave Nicaragua since the crackdown, a press freedom body said in July.  Ortega became the leader of Nicaragua first as a junta head in 1979, after fighting as a guerrilla in the Sandinista movement that toppled the US-backed Somoza family dictatorship. He was later elected as the country’s president in 1985.

Beaten in elections in 1990, he returned to power in 2007 and has since quashed presidential term limits and seized control of all branches of the state. His regime is under US and European Union sanctions.

Last week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urged an end to “repression” in Nicaragua and the immediate release of those detained.

In a statement, it expressed concern “over the persistent repression in Nicaragua, characterized by religious persecution, the continuation of arbitrary detentions and the serious conditions in which those in prison remain.”

One of Nicaragua’s rare allies, Venezuela, passed a law last week against NGOs that critics said will be used to crack down on dissidents of President Nicolas Maduro, who has claimed a reelection victory widely disputed at home and abroad.

Trending Now

Chiquita Executives Convicted in Colombia for Financing Death Squads

Colombian justice on Wednesday sentenced seven former executives of the multinational banana company Chiquita Brands to more than 11 years in prison and a...

A Costa Rica Expat and the Devil on His Shoulder

Everyone has a dark side—that little devil in your conscience that says, go ahead and do it! even though you know it’s wrong. It...

UN Denounces Guatemala Over ‘Inhuman’ Indigenous Evictions

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, called on the Guatemalan government on Friday to halt the “inhuman”...

Costa Rica’s Poás Volcano Park Reopening to Tourists With Safety Measures

The Poás Volcano National Park will reopen its doors to tourism starting July 30, after  scientific entities reported a decrease in volcanic activity. This was...

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly Vacation in Costa Rica with Baby

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly touched down in Costa Rica for a family getaway with their three-month-old daughter, Saga Blade Fox-Baker. Photographers caught...

Honduras Reinstates Mask Mandate Amid Rise in Respiratory Illnesses

Honduran health officials have reinstated a nationwide mask mandate following a spike in respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, flu, and a fast-spreading Omicron subvariant known...
spot_img
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica