MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nicaraguan gov't outlaws another 58 NGOs

After this measure, 146 NGOs have been dissolved in the last two weeks

The Nicaraguan government of President Daniel Ortega has canceled the registrations of 58 other NGOs “for being in abandonment and having between 2 and 27 years of non-compliance in accordance with the laws that regulate them,” it was reported in Managua.

Among the organizations suppressed by the Interior Ministry, 24 were from the United States and many more were from Europe (6 from Spain, 3 from Germany, 3 from Italy, 3 from the Netherlands, 2 from Belgium, 2 from Switzerland, and 1 from Denmark, Slovakia, Norway, and the United Kingdom). There were also 3 from Canada, 4 from Honduras, and 1 from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, and Puerto Rico.

The NGOs were accused of not reporting their financial statements, their boards of directors, or detailing their donors and previous donations.

After this measure, 146 NGOs have been dissolved in the last two weeks, including 51 from the United States, 16 from Spain, 13 from Italy, 9 from Germany, 7 from France, and 7 from Canada in addition to 42 local associations, over 20 of them of a religious nature, mostly evangelical.

The Sandinista administration has outlawed at least 2,475 Nicaraguan and foreign NGOs since December 2018 after a political and social crisis erupted in April of that year.

Ortega was reelected on Nov. 7 for a fifth term in office, the fourth consecutive one and the second with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president. The other contenders were either in prison or in exile.