Ortega Regime Shuts 15 More NGOs, Including Caritas of Matagalpa

 Nicaragua’s Interior Ministry officially annulled the legal status of the Matagalpa Dioceses’ Caritas Association, generally known simply as Caritas, a Catholic relief and development agency. The decisioin canceling the NGOs right to operate, along with another 14 non-governmental organizations, was published in La Gaceta, the official government gazette, on August 12.  Nine of the fifteen organizations had voluntarily dissolved.

Caritas of Matagalpa, which operated as a center for social services, was administered by the Catholic Church. In recent years, this Church has suffered ever more brazen attacks from the regime led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

Caritas Matagalpa was officially registered in March of 2009 to promote “the development of the most remote communities in Matagalpa department, giving priority to the poorest sectors of the population and those lacking basic infrastructure for health and education,” according to the organization’s Facebook page.

The current cancellation comes in a context of governmental repression and harassment of the Matagalpa Dioceses particularly, which in the past weeks has seen several priests abducted and later banished to the Vatican.

According to the Ministry, the cancellation of the Catholic organization was due to their “not reporting their financial records from 2020 – 2023, and because the allotted period of their Directive Board had expired in September 27, 2022.” Similar accusations have been leveled against virtually all the more than 3,000 non-governmental organizations forcibly closed since 2018.

In March 2023, the Ortega regime closed the organization Caritas of Nicaragua, and Caritas Jinotega, both listed as “voluntary dissolution.”

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The five other organizations that were canceled involuntarily, along with Caritas Matagalpa were:

• Asociación de Mujeres Axayacatl (AXAYACATL).
• Fundación Iglesia El Buen Samaritano (El Buen Samaritano).
• Asociación Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Espíritu Santo y Fuego (IDPESYF).
• Asociación Ministerio Evangelístico Tiempos de Cambio.
• Asociación Departamental de Canotaje Managua (ADECAM).

Properties also confiscated

The notice of cancellation signed by Nicaraguan Interior Minister Maria Amelia Coronel Kinloch states: “in reference to the destiny of the property and assets” of the eliminated NGOs, “the Attorney General’s Office shall be responsible for transferring them to the name of the State of Nicaragua.”

The dissolution of these six organizations brings to 3,663 the total number of NGOs officially eliminated by the Ortega regime since the end of 2018.

On August 8, Nicaragua’s Ministry of the Interior published a note in the government gazette formalizing the “voluntary dissolution” of nine other NGOs:

• Asociación Transcultural Misionera del Ministerio de Integral a las Naciones (ATMMIN).
• Asociación Municipal de Ajedrez de Camoapa (AMAC).
• Asociación de Fomento Turístico y Rescate de la Cultura, Momotombo León Viejo, Rigoberto Sampson (AFOTUR; LEÖN VIEJO; RS).
• Asociación para la Salud Comunitaria de El Rama (ASCORA).
• Asociación de Concilios de la Iglesia Cristiana “Arca del Evangelio” (CICA).
• Asociación Sanación Pránica Nicaragua, “Sanación Pránica Nicaragua”.
• Asociación Ministerio del Reino de Dios (MIRED).
• Fundación Ligia Terán de Astorga (FUND. L. TERAN).
• Asociación Nicaragua Iniciativa para una comunidad Avanzada (NICACOMUAVA).

This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.