Nicaragua: 24 civil organizations canceled legal status

President of the IACHR: We see a setback in Nicaragua 1:12

(CNN Spanish) -

The Nicaraguan National Assembly approved a decree on Wednesday that cancels the legal status of 24 civil society organizations, mostly independent medical associations.

The initiative for a decree, introduced before Parliament by the Sandinista deputy Filiberto Rodríguez at the request of the Ministry of the Interior, was approved with the favorable vote of 72 pro-government deputies and their allies.

Among the bodies closed is the Nicaraguan Medical Association, which brings together dozens of specialties and has published several statements where it questions the lack of strategy of the Ministry of Health to face the covid-19 pandemic in the country and demands vaccination of all public and private health personnel.

The Ministry has not officially reported how many members of the medical staff have been vaccinated.

When referring to the "destination of assets and shares" of the canceled associations, the decree states that after their liquidation, what is foreseen in their articles of incorporation or in their statutes will be done with them.

If nothing had been put on it, these assets will become the property of the State, underlines the decree.

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According to the approved text, to which CNN had access, the decree argues that the entities "have breached their legal and statutory obligations" and are "headless for expired periods of their boards of directors."

According to the ruling party, "they have not reported their financial statements to the regulatory body with detailed breakdowns (income, expenses, donations and origin and beneficiaries)," and neither did they present the agreements signed with civil organizations and their activities.

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CNN has tried to get a reaction from some of the canceled agencies, but so far we have not gotten a response.

In a March 18 statement, the Nicaraguan Medical Association had demanded that the Ministry of Health "immediately vaccinate all workers in the health sector, public and private: doctors, dentists, nurses, nursing assistants, surgical technicians, ray technicians. X, physiotherapists, laboratory workers, other health personnel, orderlies, drivers, caretakers, janitors, security and administrative personnel ".

Amnesty International criticizes the decision

Erika Guevara Rosas, director for the Americas of Amnesty International, expressed this Monday on her Twitter account: "Canceling the legal status of civil associations that have taken pains to inform the population about Covid-19 would be a repressive tactic towards sectors critical of government policies. Undermining the necessary work of medical professionals clearly shows the Nicaraguan government's disdain for the rights of its population during a health crisis. "

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) expressed through its Twitter account this Wednesday: "We repudiate the action of the Ortega Murillo regime that, through the National Assembly, canceled the legal status of 24 civil associations that have ensured health and the life of the Nicaraguans ".

On July 22, the agency had alerted independent doctors to the summons of the Directorate of Regulation of the Ministry of Health. "Cenidh receives information from Dr. Jorge Luis Borgen with concern, they have called him 'obligatorily and without explanation to the #MINSA Health Regulation Directorate room. What are they trying to do? Violate the exercise of medical work once again? ".