Nicaraguan National Assembly cancels another 100 civil organizations

(CNN Spanish) — The Nicaraguan National Assembly approved this Wednesday a new legislative decree through which it cancels the legal personality of another 100 civil society organizations for alleged non-compliance with regulatory legislation. With the last outlawed organizations, the total closed in the country exceeds 1,500 since 2018, according to a follow-up by the newspaper La Prensa and the EFE agency.

The decree was approved with the favorable vote of 75 deputies from the caucus of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), no vote against, and the abstention of 16 deputies from minority parties.

As stated in the explanatory memorandum, these organizations failed to comply with the provisions of the General Directorate for the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations, the Law on the Regulation of Foreign Agents and the Law against Money Laundering, the Financing of Terrorism and the Financing the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Among the closed organizations is the Association of Radio Communicators and organizations of the productive union such as the Association of Coffee Growers of Managua.

CNN has tried to get a reaction from some of the closed agencies, but its managers prefer to avoid comment and, they say, concentrate on the closure reports that they must present to the authorities.

The closure of civil society organizations has been a constant concern of national humanitarian organizations, such as the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), which last May stated that these massive cancellations violate the right to freedom of association, directly affect thousands of beneficiaries of the organizations and disintegrates the social fabric in the country.

International organizations such as the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) condemned the forced closure of non-governmental organizations in a resolution approved on August 12.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed on June 16, in an update on the country’s situation, its concern about the “dramatic reduction of civic space in the country” after the closure of hundreds of civil organizations.