Nicaragua’s National Assembly (Parliament), with a majority in the government, on Wednesday canceled the operating permits of five universities and the legal entities of 11 other NGOs in the country, bringing the total number of banned civil non-profit organizations to 80. since December 2018, at the request of the government of dictator Daniel Ortega.
Universities that have been registered as NGOs and have been canceled by Parliament are the Paulo Freire University (UPF), the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (Upoli), the Catholic University of the Dry Tropics (Ucatse), the Nicaraguan University of Humanistic Studies (Uneh) and the Popular University of Nicaragua (Uponic).
Previously, Sandinista deputies and their allies also banned the organizations that own the Hispano-American University (Uhispam), Association of the Agricultural University of the Fifth Region, Association of the University of Jinotega and the Fundación Universidad de Mobile Latinoamericana Campus (Fumlac).
With these 16 NGOs, the number of local entities considered illegal since the outbreak of the socio-political crisis in Nicaragua in April 2018, which left 355 dead, has risen to 80, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The closure of the five universities and 11 NGOs was implemented because allegedly the affected institutions “did not submit financial reports to the Department of Registration and Control of Non-Profit Civil Associations” of the Ministry of the Interior, or because its “Board of Directors is no-brainer” , according to the decree.
Approaching China
On Sunday, the Nicaraguan government said Ortega had received a letter from China’s dictator, Xi Jinping, seeking “mutual political trust” in the two nations, which have recently become closer. Days before the letter, the Nicaraguan government had announced that the Asian giant would finance the construction of affordable housing in its territory. Relations between China and Nicaragua resumed in December last year, when the Central American country broke off diplomatic ties with the province of Taiwan.
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