Nicaragua closes hundreds of NGOs, churches

The Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior on Thursday canceled the legal status of the American Chamber of Commerce and 150 other organizations. The ministry also closed chambers of commerce for countries including Germany, Italy, Mexico, Panama, and Uruguay. The government accused the organizations of failing to report their financial statements for a period of between one and 35 years, according to a notice published in the government gazette La Gaceta. President Daniel Ortega’s government in 2022 introduced new registration requirements for international chambers but refused to publish the requirements in writing, according to the International Trade Administration.

Has the government closed other organizations recently? Officials on Monday revoked the registration of 1,500 nonprofit organizations including churches, sports teams, women’s rights groups, and veterans’ clubs. Nearly 700 of the closed groups are associated with Catholic, Evangelical, and Pentecostal denominations, according to the list published in La Gaceta. The government claimed the groups failed to report their finances, according to the document. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Thursday condemned the closures. United Nations Human Rights Office Spokeswoman Liz Throssell on Tuesday called the closures alarming and called on Nicaraguan authorities to stop restricting civic and religious freedom.

The Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior earlier this month revoked the legal status of the Diocese of Matagalpa and expelled seven priests from the diocese to Rome.

Is this part of a larger pattern? More than 5,000 organizations, private universities, and media outlets have been shuttered in recent years, Throssell said. In June, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif said Nicaraguan officials were conducting arbitrary arrests and unfair trials to strengthen their control over the judiciary.

The human rights group Colectivo Nicaragua Nuca Mas has counted more than 200 religious individuals who have been exiled in recent years. Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who tracks attacks against churches and now lives in Texas, told the New York Times that Ortega is trying to close independent spaces not affiliated with the government. Molina on Friday released a report that found that nearly 250 priests, nuns, bishops, and other members of the Roman Catholic Church have been forced out of the country since 2018.

Dig deeper: Read Eric Patterson’s opinion piece about fighting religious persecution.