Global Courant 2023-05-11 05:28:09
President Daniel Ortega’s government is accused of shutting down more than 3,000 non-governmental groups.
Nicaragua’s National Assembly has voted to dissolve the local chapter of the Red Cross, a non-profit humanitarian organization, as part of an ongoing crackdown on groups seen as hostile to Daniel Ortega’s government.
The law to close the Red Cross was passed unanimously on Wednesday, with the legislature controlled by Ortega’s Sandinista Party.
Instead, lawmakers called for a “new Nicaraguan Red Cross” that would function as a “decentralized, autonomous” body under the government’s Ministry of Health, though it’s unclear how the country would fund such a venture.
The attack on the Red Cross comes amid a widespread effort to suppress perceived critics of the government and other organizations, including the Catholic Church.
As part of Wednesday’s resolution, the Nicaraguan government will seize Red Cross property in the country. It has accused the healthcare nonprofit of committing “attacks on peace and stability” for its role in anti-government demonstrations in 2018.
Those protests, sparked by changes in Nicaragua’s social security system, quickly grew from a student-led movement to broader action against Ortega’s government.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights estimates that 355 people were killed in clashes with government forces between April 2018 and July 2019. years.
The Red Cross has said its participation in the protests was limited to helping the injured, but Nicaragua’s government accused the organization of violating its political neutrality.
“The association itself has broken the laws of the country,” it said in a document to the legislature, supporting Wednesday’s actions.
With a history dating back to the mid-1800s, the Red Cross has provided disaster relief and relief during conflicts around the world.
The Red Cross’s mandate in Nicaragua began with a 1958 decree that was repealed in Wednesday’s resolution. Funded largely by donations, it had around 2,000 volunteers and 63 ambulances in the region, according to the AFP news agency.
More than 3,000 groups and non-governmental organizations have been shut down in Nicaragua as part of the crackdown on alleged dissent. They range from a riding school to the 94 year old Nicaraguan Academy of Letters.
Critics say the Ortega regime also arrested 40 political opponents last week and charged them with conspiracy and treason, among other charges.
This comes after Nicaragua sent 222 political prisoners into exile in the United States, stripping them and other critics of their citizenship. A bishop who refused to board the flight, Rolando Alvarez, has since been imprisoned on conspiracy and “fake news” charges.
