The Nicaraguan government revoked the legal status of 1,500 nongovernmental organisations on Monday. In the biggest single crackdown, the Daniel Ortega government banned civil society groups such as the Nicaraguan Red Cross, several Catholic charities, some sports associations including chess clubs and private universities.
The Nicaraguan interior ministry said the proscribed organisations had failed to disclose financial information, including donations. “They have not fulfilled their obligations,” the government of this Central American country said.
However, this is not the first time that President Daniel Ortega, 78, has shuttered civil society groups. This streak began in 2018, following deadly anti-government protests.
Reports suggest that all crackdowns have targeted groups that Ortega’s government has perceived as threats to his administration. More than 5,000 civil society groups, media outlets, social and sporting clubs, and private universities have been shut down in the past six years.
More than 300 politicians, journalists and rights activists have been expelled from the country on the allegations of treason. Last week, Nicaragua passed a law that requires all civil society groups to work exclusively in partnerships or alliances with government entities.
Economic distress, protests and crackdown
The crisis began with a series of social and economic grievances. The Ortega government had proposed social security reforms that included cuts to pensions and increased contributions for workers and employers. Simply put, the reforms meant lesser money left with pensioners and workers when Nicaragua was facing serious economic issues.
This proved to be the immediate catalyst for protests. But it had a deeper background of continued economic distress coupled with widespread corruption in the government. Public frustration compounded by the poor management of a fire in a biodiversity park. Protests erupted, with students and pensioners leading the charge. They were joined by other segments of society dissatisfied with the government’s policies and performance.
While protesting groups needed reconciliation, President Ortega’s response came in the form of an unrelenting assault on civil society. The result was that what began as a response to controversial fiscal reforms and mishandled emergencies quickly turned into a significant challenge to Ortega’s rule. The government’s reaction was swift and severe, setting the stage for a broader campaign to stifle dissent and consolidate power.
The tussle
People took to the streets in their thousands. They were met with violent crackdowns by police and paramilitary forces, who used live ammunition against demonstrators. This brutal response, resulting in numerous casualties, was captured and broadcast by some independent media outlets and social media. The journalists reporting independently faced threats, harassment, and violence.
Several journalists were detained, newsrooms raided, and pressure exerted on media owners to self-censor the reporting of the agitation. This mass agitation, it appears, convinced the Ortega administration that civil society and independent media were a threat to his rule. The crackdown began with the press but it marked just the launch of broader effort to suppress any form of independent posturing in Nicaragua.
By December 2018, the government began targeting civil society organisations, cancelling the registration of nearly 200 NGOs. Some of them were working in cultural and educational fields for years — the Nicaraguan Academy of Letters and the Society of Pediatrics. Initially, the government claimed these groups were linked to opposition figures or foreign interests, but Nicaragua observers say that the closures were part of a larger strategy to eliminate any independent entities that might question Ortega’s authority.
Crackdown goes wider
The situation worsened in 2022, when Nicaragua passed new laws requiring NGOs to register as “foreign agents” and disclose detailed financial information. The regulations were immediately enforced, leading to the shutdown of over 400 organisations — from local community groups to major institutions such as the Centre for International Studies. This broad sweep left few untouched, including those dedicated to vital social, scientific, and environmental work.
Private universities came in for special targets. Viewed as bastions of independent thought and academic freedom in Nicaragua, they attracted the wrath of the Ortega government, which accused them of supporting Opposition’s political activities.
What Ortega is aiming for
Ortega’s story begins in 1979, when a guerilla struggle threw out the Samoza family of power. The Somoza family was a military dynasty, backed by the United States. For 42 years, the family ran Nicaragua. In the late 1970s, a leftist guerrilla known as the Sandinistas launched an armed rebellion against the regime, then led by Anastasio Somoza, who fled to the US in 1979. The Sandinistas entered capital Managua victorious.
Then a young military commander, Daniel Ortega emerged as a Sandinista hero, having spent seven years as a political prisoner. Ortega won the next election and became president. But his victory rattled America, as the story goes, which funded a new crop of counter-revolutionaries called the Contras. Another civil war began, and Ortega was forced to announce another election in 1990. He lost.
His next moment of victory came 17 years later through alliances with his former rivals. He won the 2007 election and has been ruling Nicaragua since then. Over the next decade, Ortega consolidated his power, and also made his wife Rosario Murillo the vice president. The 2018 protests were the first serious challenge to his rule.
The protests did begin with people’s anguish over social security reforms but it turned into a call for the ouster of Ortega, who saw it a design plotted by civil society groups. Since then, his administration has tried to establish control over dissenting voices, eliminating any critique or challenge to his government.
This crackdown has seen media outlets, journalists, civil rights activists, educationalists, private universities and rival politicians being targeted. The United Nations has repeatedly decried the persecution of rights activists and rival politicians. But this has had little effect on President Ortega, who won a landslide for his fourth consecutive term in the last presidential election held in November 2021 — barely months after the police placed Cristiana Chamorro, her main rival, under house arrest for alleged money-laundering.
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Publish date : 2024-08-21 18:59:00
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