Nicaragua closed 169 NGOs on Thursday, including the children’s protection organization Save the Children, in a new crackdown by President Daniel Ortega’s government against civil society groups. Among the organizations shut down were around 90 evangelical churches and associations, about 40 cattle ranchers’ associations, a Catholic entity, a group of retired academics, and the Foundation against Cancer and AIDS.
The Ministry of the Interior ordered “the Cancellation of Legal Personality and Registration of 169 Non-Profit Organizations for failing to comply with the Laws,” according to a resolution published in the official newspaper, La Gaceta. According to current legislation, their assets will be transferred to the state. With these closures, the number of non-governmental organizations shut down by Ortega’s government in the last six years has risen to nearly 5,500.
Ortega’s government, along with his powerful wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, tightened laws against NGOs following opposition protests in 2018, which left more than 300 dead in three months, according to the UN. Nine days ago, the government closed 1,500 NGOs, most of them religious, a move described as “extremely alarming” by the UN Human Rights Office.
Ortega, a 78-year-old former guerrilla who governed Nicaragua in the 1980s and has been back in power since 2007, claims that the NGOs, particularly the Catholic Church, supported the protests, which he considers an attempted coup sponsored by Washington.
Additionally, on August 22, a new law came into effect in Nicaragua requiring churches to pay taxes and stipulating that NGOs can only operate in “partnership alliances” with state entities.
Ortega’s government, which faces sanctions from the United States and the European Union for what they describe as authoritarian measures, has also shut down Catholic radio stations and universities.
