The RAE asks for "public and private" support before the order to close the Nicaraguan Academy of Language by the Government of Daniel Ortega

The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) has issued a statement on Monday in which it expresses its "deep concern about the possible closure" of the Nicaraguan Academy of Language, after the Government of the Central American country, chaired by Daniel Ortega, ordered the last Saturday the closure of the institution, along with 83 other local NGOs.

The reason given by the Nicaraguan Executive is that these NGOs have not been duly registered in the registry of “foreign agents”, as required by law.

The organizations deny it.

Another of those mentioned is the Enrique Bolaños Foundation, known for having one of the most complete virtual libraries in the country.

This bill could be approved this week in the Nicaraguan Parliament.

The RAE warns that the Nicaraguan Academy, with its 94-year history, will inevitably be doomed to disappear as soon as it loses its legal personality and cannot manage bank accounts or pay salaries.

In its statement, the RAE recalls that it is a "fundamental institution for the care of the language that writers in the country have taken to their highest degree of excellence", referring to authors such as Rubén Darío, Alfonso Cortés, Ernesto Mejía, José Coronel Urtecho, Lisandro Chávez, Ernesto Cardenal or Pablo Antonio Cuadra, among others.

"The Academy", continues the RAE, "develops tireless work for the direct benefit of the people, who are the owners of the language, and plays an essential role in the international concert as part of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (Asale) ,

to whose joint work they contribute in an exemplary manner”.

The Spanish institution asks for public and private support to avoid this "irreparable loss".

The Nicaraguan Academy of Language has legal status since 1928!!

And now they come out with the fact that they have not met the requirements and that they will suspend the status of an academy that is apolitical by nature.

Not even Somoza did it @ReporteNi

– Gioconda Belli (@GiocondaBelliP) May 29, 2022

After the announcement by the Ortega Government, the Nicaraguan Academy has reacted by highlighting its long history and its participation in numerous Pan-Hispanic projects, such as the

, the Phraseological Dictionary, the Pan-Hispanic Gastronomic Dictionary or the Dictionary of Americanisms.

He has also reported that he is "working on the revision, amendments and contributions to the new grammar of the Spanish language and the dictionary of the Spanish language".

The institution was founded in Managua, in 1928, by seven intellectuals, led by the politician and jurist Carlos Cuadra Pasos, who installed it in the hall of honor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

One of its motivations is the dialogue between two cultures, which is why its shield represents the meeting between the conqueror Gil González Dávila and a warrior chief from the New World, which could have happened in 1523, when the Spanish arrived in those lands.

It is accompanied by a verse by Rubén Darío: "In united spirit, in spirit and desire and language."

Among the current academics are writers such as Sergio Ramírez, exiled in Spain after an arrest warrant issued by the same government, or the poet and novelist Gioconda Belli, also an opponent of the regime.

Precisely, Belli published a tweet on Sunday with the following message:

“The Nicaraguan Academy of Language has legal status since 1928!!

And now they come out with the fact that they have not met the requirements and that they will suspend the status of an academy that is apolitical by nature.

Not even Somoza [for the Nicaraguan dictator] did it.”

Adding these 83 associations, there would already be 229 NGOs threatened by the Ortega administration, through the Ministry of the Interior, so far in May and 319 since December 2018. This has been possible thanks to the vote of the Sandinista deputies and his allies in the National Assembly, and began a few months after the outbreak of the popular revolt of April 2018, related to the Social Security reforms, which the Ortega government described as a coup.

Now they allege that the outlawed organizations used the donations they received to overthrow the government during the protests, whose hangover has kept the country in suspense ever since, although they have not presented evidence of these alleged charges.