This article was published by Nicaraguan journalist Octavio Enríquez in CONNECTAS, and is republished in Global Voices under a media partnership agreement.
As if arbitrary arrests, deprivation of nationality and banishments were not enough in Nicaragua, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo marked another repressive milestone in Latin America. In a single day, it ordered the closure of 1500 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and confiscated their assets.
Murillo, Ortega’s wife who serves as vice president, announced on Friday, August 16, shortly before signing the state measure, a new model for these organizations. They will no longer receive tax benefits and their relationship with the state must be limited to “respect” and “solidarity,” which, in the language of the dictatorship, means that they will not be able to exercise any function that implies criticism of the government. The toughening is so severe that churches will have to pay taxes on the alms they receive.
According to Nicaraguan human rights activist Amaru Ruiz, the dictatorship has wiped out 72 percent of civic space by shutting down 5,220 organizations in the last six years. This systematic attack escalated with the approval of the “foreign agents” law, passed in October 2020. It is known locally as the “Putin law” after similar Russian legislation in late 2012 that appears to have served as a model for this repressive mechanism.
Today, Ortega represents the most extreme case of a class of Latin American politicians who consider the work of NGOs to be an aggression against “national sovereignty.” Among them are leaders in Mexico, El Salvador, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
Record of attacks on NGOs in the region
Governments of different ideological signs have shown their displeasure with associations and independent journalism. Why do political leaders hate these social organizations so much, and what are they really after?
Where does the concept of sovereignty come from and what is its significance, as it is thrown around so much in Latin America? First, sovereignty is the capacity of a state to exercise absolute control over the political institutions in its territory, but also to make its own decisions. Political scientist José Antonio Peraza, a former political prisoner of Ortega’s, explains that the Romans called it “principatus.”
Peraza claims that the dictator of Nicaragua has taken repressive measures against NGOs because he considers it unacceptable for them to intervene and give their opinion on social, political and economic affairs. Peraza warns that:
Todo aquel que se sale de ese control interno se vuelve un enemigo del Estado y por tanto de la soberanía.
Anyone who steps outside this internal control becomes an enemy of the state and therefore of sovereignty.
This sovereignty resides in the people, as Jean Jacques Rousseau put it in the 18th century. Years later, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen also established that this principle resides in the nation. Both of these views are essential to understand states, which are characterized by their institutional structures.
However, some anti-democratic regimes in Latin America and around the world identify themselves with the people. They deplore the independence of state powers and make them subordinate to their own decisions.
For example, the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela has been repressing protests against electoral fraud under this pretext since the end of July, as if the demonstrators were enemies of the people. And, as was to be expected, Chavismo has targeted NGOs in its attacks. On August 15, Maduro’s party approved a law to control the financing and activities of these associations. The law coincides with a local pattern of harassment of the Red Cross in 2023 and of other human rights organizations such as Provea.
Lawyer Alí Daniels, of the NGO Acceso a la Justicia, told the Venezuelan digital newspaper Efecto Cocuyo:
Se quiere tener una sociedad civil callada y sumisa. Domesticada. Este es el verdadero fin de la ley. No es la regularización de las organizaciones, porque ya estábamos regulados. Hacemos un llamado a los órganos internacionales para que se pronuncien sobre este tema.
They want to have a quiet and submissive civil society. Domesticated. This is the real purpose of the law. It is not the regularization of the organizations, because we were already regulated. We call on international bodies to pronounce themselves on this issue.
#LaHoraDeVenezuela 🇻🇪🚨 | Oenegés en #Venezuela denuncian que a todos los detenidos en las protestas se les imputan los mismos cargos.
¿Cuál es el patrón? Audiencias colectivas, a distancia y sin defensa privada.
Esta nota lo explica.⬇️https://t.co/9aFOIQPyZE
— CONNECTAS (@ConnectasOrg) August 2, 2024
#LaHoraDeVenezuela | NGOs in #Venezuela report that all those detained in protests are charged with the same charges.
What is the pattern? Collective hearings, at a distance and without private defense.
This article explains it.
In recent years, other Latin American leaders have lashed out against organized civil society. Among the most discomforting examples is Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. On August 19, he criticized the fact that the US agency USAID financed the non-profit association Mexicans Against Corruption, which specializes in journalistic investigations. Pained by the accusations, López Obrador said he wrote to his counterpart Joe Biden on the matter. López Obrador argued:
Este proceder es completamente ofensivo y contrario a las relaciones de respeto a nuestras soberanías que tanto usted como yo hemos venido cultivando en bien de nuestras naciones.
This is completely offensive and contrary to the relationship of respect for our sovereignty that both you and I have been cultivating for the good of our nations.
For the Salvadoran expert in international relations Napoleón Campos, civil society generally assumes the roles of promoting human rights and citizen participation in democratic contexts. This is recognized as a valuable contribution, both by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations. However, these organizations are confronted on the ground by the interests of what Campos calls “tyrannical projects.”
#Entérate Esta semana el presidente @lopezobrador_ exhibió información fiscal de los donantes, proveedores y personal de MCCI. Durante el sexenio nuestra organización ha sido hostigada y difamada en 265 ocasiones.
Te contamos. 🎨 https://t.co/Bxzw3XgdpC pic.twitter.com/UzkYNz3Xx0
— Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción (@MXvsCORRUPCION) August 16, 2024
#Read This week President @lopezobrador_ released tax information on MCCI donors, suppliers and staff. During [his] six-year term, our organization has been harassed and smeared on 265 occasions.
We report on it.
Campos agrees with Bolivian diplomat Jaime Aparicio Otero, former president of the Inter-American Juridical Committee of the OAS. Aparicio observes that the concept of sovereignty becomes a “pretext” to attack a sector that political leaders see as a threat to their absolute control. Aparicio says:
Las organizaciones y movimientos de la sociedad suelen promover valores como la transparencia, la rendición de cuentas, la protección del medioambiente, derechos humanos y la participación democrática. Por lo tanto, son contrarios a los intereses de un gobierno que lo que busca es concentrar el poder y prorrogarse.
Civil society organizations and movements tend to promote values such as transparency, accountability, environmental protection, human rights and democratic participation. Therefore, they are contrary to the interests of a government that seeks to concentrate power and perpetuate itself.
Aparicio points to Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela as the group of nations living under “authoritarian populism.” Though those leaders identify themselves as leftist, Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing also persecuted NGOs in Brazil. In fact, he tried to control NGOs through a decree in 2019 and accused associations working with Amazonian peoples of “manipulating and exploiting” Indigenous communities.
Nayib Bukele in El Salvador has also attacked civil society groups. After establishing an exceptional regime to combat gangs, which gained him immense popularity with his iron fist policy, he was able to get re-elected in 2024, but democracy died in the making. Of course, the people documenting the abuses come from the ranks of civil society and independent journalism, and the government has responded with harassment and a permanent smear campaign against them on social media. For example, Bukele erupted in anger in April 2022 and accused NGOs, the media, and other political parties of being behind the “bloodshed” caused by the gangs.
The Salvadoran government has, for the moment, a bill on “foreign agents” on hold. The law proposal seeks to punish “foreign interference” and considers levying a 40 percent tax on all those civil society organizations or the media that the regime considers to be participating in politics and disrupting the peace. The law is “dormant” for now, but given Bukele’s complete control of the parliament, it could be applied at any time.
#PolíticaSV l No archivarán Ley de Agentes Extranjeros dice presidente de Asamblea
>> https://t.co/lZzVgJHfDJ pic.twitter.com/0MJxxc1Wrr
— Diario El Mundo (@ElMundoSV) August 6, 2022
#SVPolitics l Foreign Agents Law will not be shelved, says Assembly Speaker
Bukele, seen as an ultra-right-winger, has taken positions in defense of “sovereignty” that bring him closer to the leftist Ortega. On three occasions, the Salvadoran delegation to the OAS did not endorse multilateral condemnation of abuses committed in Nicaragua. They wrote a curious footnote, in which El Salvador affirms that it does not intervene in the internal affairs of other countries.
But the concept of sovereignty has its limits. While Campos considers Bukele’s position “hypocritical,” Aparicio calls on states’ commitments to respect human rights. He said:
Respecto a la soberanía es bueno decir que se olvidan los países latinoamericanos como México, Colombia y otros que, al firmar la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos y la carta de la OEA, hay un deber de injerencia asumido por los propios Estados que trasnacionaliza la obligación de cumplir con los derechos humanos.
Regarding sovereignty, it is worth mentioning that Latin American countries such as Mexico, Colombia and others forget that, by signing the American Convention on Human Rights and the OAS Charter, there is a duty of interference assumed by the states themselves. This transnationalizes the obligation to comply with human rights.
In Bolivia, if we review the political record of Evo Morales, he seemed bent on building the image of a sovereignty champion in Latin America. But defending this value is quite malleable in the hands of politicians. In fact, these Latin American leaders are often docile when the alleged interference comes from China, Russia or Iran. Aparicio explains that Beijing’s million-dollar investments — in technology, infrastructure and natural resources — do not stipulate any governance or human rights conditions to its partners.
For example, on October 14, 2023, Daniel Ortega praised the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with China. He said that it was a “miracle” that they now have those ties and stressed that the treatment with them is of “respect” and without “putting conditions.” It is the same modus operandi with other nations that are facing human rights violations. After all, Beijing recognized Maduro’s “victory” after “the successful organization” of elections in Venezuela, despite the fraud documented by the opposition.
Of course, it is only logical that dictators who deploy Stalinist terror against their opponents should prefer to be friends with those who do not question their behavior. Local autocrats do not like to be asked uncomfortable questions, precisely those that civil society organizations are required to ask. Hence, to a greater or lesser extent, NGOs will always find themselves in the crosshairs of repression.
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Publish date : 2024-09-21 03:53:00
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