Ortega dictatorship closes 1,500 NGOs and banishes 2 priests from the Catholic Church in Nicaragua

The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua canceled the legal personality of 1,500 non-profit organizations (NPOs)—also known as non-governmental organizations (NGOs)—among them Cáritas de Granada and a large number of Catholic and evangelical associations; and banished two other Catholic priests to Rome.

The decision to cancel the 1,500 organizations was announced through ministerial agreement 38-2024-OSFL, published on August 19 in the official gazette. The Gazetteand signed by the Minister of the Ministry of the Interior of Nicaragua, María Amelia Coronel Kinloch.

The text indicates that the 1,500 NPOs “have failed to comply with their obligations” such as not reporting “their financial statements for periods of between 01 and up to 35 years.”

The ministerial agreement specifies that the Attorney General’s Office must carry out the transfer of the movable and immovable property of all these organizations “in the name of the State of Nicaragua.”

According to the newspaper The Pressis the first time that the government has closed such a large number of NPOs through a single ministerial agreement.

This also happens four days after the dictatorship announced a new way of working with NGOs and required them to make “alliances” with the state in order to control them.

678 Christian NPOs canceled: Catholic and Evangelical

In the group there are 678 Catholic and evangelical NPOs that have been canceled, such as the Betel church, Ríos de Agua Viva, Príncipe de Paz, Iglesia Casa del Rey, Iglesia Cristiana la Roca in Nicaragua, the Fundación Educando en la Fe, Fraternidad de Pastores Nicaraguan Evangelicals, Christian Foundation more than Victors, Religious Congregation Mother of the Divine Shepherd, Association for the Secular Franciscan Order, Association of Salesian Ladies; among others.

There are also other groups such as the Association for the Rights of Nicaraguan Sexual Diversity, the Redtrans of Nicaragua, the Monimbo Indigenous Movement, the Foundation for Business Development of Matagalpa, the Association of Retirees and Pensioners Camilo Ortega Saavedra, and the Hotel Association from Nicaragua; among others.

According to La Prensa, these 1,500 NPOs join another 3,600 that have already been canceled by the dictatorship since 2018.

Martha Patricia Molinaresearcher and author of the report Nicaragua: A persecuted Church?which in its fifth installment on August 15 revealed 870 attacks by the dictatorship against the Catholic Church, regretted the closure of the 1,500 NPOs.

Regarding Cáritas Granada, he recalled that this Catholic solidarity arm helped people during the covid pandemic, in addition to having “different food and education programs, and even supported the Sandinista Police.”

“Today closes the chapter in Granada because the SANDINISM (the dictatorship of Ortega and Murillo), which is blood and death, has arbitrarily closed its legal status and will proceed to confiscate its properties and steal its personal property and bank accounts,” he lamented.

“A fundamental part of our fight for democracy is the relentless denunciation of the atrocities perpetrated by the criminal Ortega regime against the Nicaraguan people,” he noted in this regard. in X, Félix Maradiagaformer presidential candidate and president of the Freedom for Nicaragua Foundation.

“We cannot remain silent while this dictator closes 5,100 NGOs, suffocating civil society and violating the rights of thousands of citizens. Yesterday we began a tour of international organizations, media and opinion leaders, with the aim of unmasking the devastating consequences of this brutal and unprecedented act,” he stressed.

The former ambassador of Nicaragua to the Organization of American States (OAS), Arturo McFieldspublished a video in which he points out that the “Nicaraguan dictatorship commits crimes against humanity against the Catholic and Evangelical Church. “It is a Hitler-style extermination operation.”

Two other priests banished from Nicaragua

According to the newspaper Mosaicwhich covers the main events in Matagalpa and Jinotega in Nicaragua, since last August 15, two other priests were banished to Rome: Denis Martínez García and Leonel Balmaceda, from the Dioceses of Matagalpa and Estelí, respectively, who were detained by the dictatorship just a few days ago.

Unlike the last exiles, this time the dictatorship has not commented on the matter.

A priest in exile, whom Mosaico does not identify for security reasons, points out that this silence of the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship would seek to “avoid international scrutiny. By not issuing any statement, (Ortega and Murillo) could be trying to reduce the visibility of their repressive acts and thus reduce pressure from international organizations and foreign governments.”