Nicaragua closes association that assists women with cancer and 23 other NGOs

The Nicaraguan regime, through the Ministry of the Interior, canceled this Tuesday (28) the legal status of an association that provided assistance to women with cancer and 23 other NGOs – including eight that requested its voluntary dissolution -, on the grounds that they violated the laws that regulate them.

The dissolution of the María Auxiliadora Pro-Women with Cancer Association, registered since June 28, 2004, was approved by the Minister of the Interior of Nicaragua, María Amelia Coronel, according to a ministerial agreement published in the official Nicaraguan newspaper La Gaceta.

According to the ministry, this charitable association that took care of cervical and breast cancer in low-income patients, according to its website, was proscribed for non-compliance, because “it did not present financial statements for the period from 2020 to 2022”, and its board of directors expired on May 29, 2021.

With the closure of these 24 NGOs, at least 3,372 organizations of this type were dissolved in Nicaragua after the popular protests that erupted in April 2018.

In general, the Ministry of the Interior argued that it unilaterally closed 15 NGOs “because they had been abandoned and had been in breach of their obligations under the laws that regulate them for between three and 14 years”, eight for “voluntary dissolution” and the American Forward Edge International “for failure to fulfill its obligations under the laws of Nicaragua”.

As for the liquidation of the organizations’ assets, the ministry explained that it will be up to the Attorney General’s Office to proceed ex officio with the transfer of movable or immovable property to the name of the State of Nicaragua, except for those that requested voluntary dissolution.

Among the new illegal NGOs are the Peasant Association of Culture and Ecological Production of the Autonomous Region of the South and Central Atlantic, the Catalan Nicaraguan Association of Friendship and Solidarity, and the Association of War Veterans for the Development of La Dalia.

Sandinista deputies such as Filiberto Rodríguez said affected NGOs used proceeds from the donations received to try to overthrow Nicaragua’s dictator Daniel Ortega in the demonstrations that erupted in April 2018.

Thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets at the time to protest controversial social security reforms, which later turned into a demand for Ortega’s resignation.

The protests left at least 355 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), although Nicaraguan organizations put the number at 684. Ortega’s government recognizes “more than 300.”

The Sandinistas also argued that the illegalization of these NGOs is part of an ordering process, because not all the 7,227 registered in Nicaragua until 2018 were operating.

Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since then, which has worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as deputy. -president, with his main opponents in prison or exile.