The Nicaraguan government has ordered 1,500 non-profit organisations, most of them religious groups, to stop working in the country.
The decision was reportedly made by the Ministry of the Interior and published in the country's official gazette, following the NGOs’ failure to declare their annual accounts. As a result, their assets will be seized by the State.
This is the first time the government has ordered so many NGOs to stop functioning simultaneously. Since 2018, when large-scale protests broke out against President Daniel Ortega, over 5,100 NGOs have been disbanded in the country.
After the 2018 protests, which, according to the United Nations, resulted in over 300 deaths in three months, Nicaragua strengthened its legal apparatus.
Many of the dissolved NGOs include religious, charitable, sports and indigenous organisations. The government alleges that the church was behind the 2018 demonstrations.
Ortega, who first came to power in the 1980s following the Nicaraguan Revolution and was returned to office in 2007, has been repeatedly re-elected in contentious elections.
He has been the target of frequent international criticism over his autocratic rule.
