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After the Nicaraguan ruling party accused members of the Red Cross of promoting participation during the 2018 protests, the National Assembly agreed to cancel the legal status of the international organization immediately. Now, both the assets and the shares and assets of the Red Cross will become property of the State. With this, there are already more than 20 closures of non-profit organizations in Nicaragua during 2023.
By Andrés Triviño V.
The Nicaraguan Legislature approved a law that eliminates the autonomy of the Red Cross in the Central American country, so that its assets and assets will be administered by the Government of Daniel Ortega.
The “Law for the Repeal of Legislative Decree No. 357” was urgently approved this Wednesday, May 10, by the Assembly, which is dominated by pro-government deputies.
Parliamentarians accused the Red Cross of acting against its principles and breaking its guidelines during the 2018 anti-government protests.
“In the acts that occurred in 2018 that threatened the peace and stability of the nation, some branches of the Red Cross acted against the principles of humanity, impartiality and neutrality,” the deputies said when repealing the legislative decree of 29 of October 1958, with which the organization was established in Nicaragua.
The demonstrations, which lasted for about four months, demanded the resignation of Daniel Ortega as president of the country, but it was called an attempted coup by the government, for which strong police repression was denounced.
Sandinista deputies and their allies accused the Red Cross of “violating the laws of the country” after 65 years of constant operations.
The social outbreak left a balance of at least 355 people dead, according to figures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), while some national organizations denounce 684.
But the deputies gave a solution to “respect the Geneva Conventions of 1949”: the creation of the Nicaraguan Red Cross, which would be a “decentralized entity attached to the Ministry of Health.”
Nicaragua is going through a difficult situation
This country is suffering from a political and social crisis that has become more notorious since the 2018 protests and the 2021 elections, in which Daniel Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth in a row, and second along with his wife Rosario Murillo as vice president. .
So far this year, the Sandinistas have removed the legal personality of at least 20 NGOs, mostly religious, alleging irregularities in their records.
This adds up to at least 3,400 closures of non-profit organizations since 2018 in Nicaragua.
It is estimated that, with the cessation of operations of the organizations, around 3.4 million people have been left unprotected in various areas such as health, education, environment, among others.
With EFE and local media
