NGOs Unite Against Nicaragua Government Plan
to Control Them
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NGOs Unite Against Nicaragua Government Plan
to Control Them
Managua – A number of Nicaragua’s civil
society groups announced on Saturday that
they will fight the Daniel Ortega
administration’s plan to control
non-governmental organizations, or NGOs.
That decision was announced to the press
Saturday by leaders of the Nicaraguan Human
Rights Center (Cenidh), the Federation of
Non-Governmental Organizations (Fong) and
the Civil Coordinating Committee (CC).
Cenidh director Bayardo Izaba said that ever
since the government of Arnoldo Aleman
(1997-2002), there have been official
attempts to control the work of NGOs.
“It won’t be the government of President
Daniel Ortega that makes it impossible to
promote and defend Nicaraguans’ political
and civil rights and their democratic
rights,” Izaba said.
He said that the directors of the CC, Fong
and Cenidh have analyzed the manual that the
government, through the Interior Ministry,
“plans to impose on NGOs to control their
activities without ever discussing it with
those involved.”
The directors also analyzed “whether the
ministry has the authority to regulate the
objectives of the NGOs,” he said.
“The Ortega government aims to keep NGOs
from criticizing its performance and
requests transparency in the use of funds
for international cooperation,” Izaba said.
The human-rights activist said that this is
because “Nicaragua’s political class has not
been able to capitalize on the immense
social discontent that exists because of the
deficient performance of the current
government.”
“Civil organizations are meant to denounce
anyone who uses power, whoever it is, to
infringe on human rights. And if the
president wishes to violate the constitution
we will stand up to him. It won’t be the
first time,” Izaba said.
Fong president Julio Lopez Miranda said that
the government does not want citizens to
understand their right to take part in
government, to protest and to express their
opinions.
CC spokeswoman Luisa Molina said that NGOs
are concerned “because once again government
officials are exceeding their authority and
establishing parameters they have no right
to.”
According to Articles 48 and 49 of the
Nicaraguan constitution, the government is
obliged to eliminate all obstacles that keep
citizens from participating, and puts
citizens’ interests above the particular
interests of any official under the
constitution,” Molina said.
The Managua daily La Prensa said Saturday
that the government has the manual ready,
prepared by officials of the Foreign
Ministry to regulate NGOs.
It said that by means of this manual the
government seeks to control the funding that
local NGOs receive, on grounds that they
allow exterior forces to meddle in matters
of internal politics.
Nicaraguan Interior Minister Ana Isabel
Morales told the press this week that “what
the manual and the law establish very
clearly is that financing (for NGOs) is not
for meddling in political matters.” |
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