New Laws Weaken and Co-opt NGO Work in Nicaragua

The Nicaraguan National Assembly, a government body under the full control of the Ortega regime, unanimously approved a package of reforms to the laws governing the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that operate in the country. Between December 2018 and mid-August 2024, seventy percent of the previously existing non-profit organizations, including the most active, were eliminated through forced closure and confiscation. The reform package was sent to the legislative body for their urgent approval.

The specific laws that were changed, with the approval of the 91 Assembly deputies are:

• General Law for the Regulation and Control of Non-profit Organizations (Law #1115)
• Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents (Law #1040); and
• Tax Concertation Law (Law #822)

This package of reforms ordered by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo ostensibly aims to “regulate” the execution of the programs and projects that non-profit organizations carry out in Nicaragua. According to the new norms, the NGOs must now work in alliance with the Ministry of the Interior, precisely the same body that has lowered the guillotine against so many of these organizations.

The regime seeks to control all NGO projects in Nicaragua

On August 16, 2024, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship gave notice of their intent to implement a “new operational mode” for the NGOs in Nicaragua. Analysts say these new regulations will remove the autonomy of NGO projects and are intended to control the resources that these organizations receive.

According to the new model, NGOs must present their proposals for “partnership programs and projects” to the Ministry of the Interior or the Foreign Ministry. The proposals will be evaluated by Ortega, Murillo, and the relevant government institutions according to the projects’ objectives, who will decide whether to accept or reject the initiative.

Also, with these reforms all the NGOs and so-called foreign agents “will not be objects or subjects of exemptions, exonerations or other fiscal benefits” in Nicaragua.

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Since the end of 2018, the Ortega regime has shuttered 5,163 NGOs – 1,500 of them announced on August 19, 2024. Some of the organizations had request their voluntary dissolution, in order to conserve their patrimony and avoid having their assets confiscated.

Daniel Ortega, who returned to power in 2007 and has hung on ever since through unconstitutional and fraudulent reelections, has deepened his government’s international isolation due to systematic human rights violations. The massive closure of NGOs has also served to reduce the level of international aid, which the government now aims to control through the implementation of these reforms.

1,500 new organizations to the guillotine

On Monday, August 19, 2024, the Ministry of the Interior cancelled an additional 1,500 Nicaraguan NGOs, accusing all of them of “not reporting” their financial status for periods ranging between one and thirty-five years.

The latest group of cancelled NGOs are mainly Catholic and evangelical Protestant organizations, although there are also social, equestrian, entrepreneur, educational, medical, indigenous, and athletic associations, plus organizations of war veterans and attorneys.

The measures form a new front in the persecution that the regime unleashed against the NGOs since the mass protests of 2018, accusing them – with no evidence -of accepting money from foreign governments “to engage in terrorist and destabilizing activities.”

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.