Paper organizations that exist on documents but hold no real presence
En Nicaragua, el parlamento controlado por el sandinismo de Daniel Ortega disolvió en julio de 2022 otras cien organizaciones civiles en una sola votación, elevando a 1.058 el total de ONGs suprimidas desde las protestas de 2018. Lo que el gobierno presenta como una limpieza administrativa es, para observadores internacionales, la continuación sistemática del desmantelamiento de la sociedad civil: grupos de derechos humanos, periodismo, salud y medio ambiente borrados del registro legal con urgencia legislativa. Detrás de cada organización clausurada hay una voz que el Estado ha decidido que no debe seguir siendo escuchada.
- El parlamento aprobó la disolución de cien ONGs en minutos, repitiendo la misma operación por segundo día consecutivo, con 859 organizaciones liquidadas en apenas siete meses.
- Entre las entidades suprimidas figuran grupos de defensa de derechos humanos, protección ambiental, apoyo al periodismo y atención sanitaria, sectores que representan el núcleo de la sociedad civil independiente.
- El gobierno justifica las clausuras alegando violaciones a la ley nicaragüense, pero legisladores como Filiberto Rodríguez acusan sin pruebas a estas ONGs de haber financiado intentos de derrocar a Ortega en 2018.
- Las protestas de 2018, que dejaron entre 355 y 684 muertos según distintas fuentes, siguen siendo el argumento central del régimen para justificar una represión que no ha cesado cuatro años después.
- Con sus principales opositores encarcelados y observadores internacionales documentando fraude electoral en 2021, Ortega consolida un poder que estrecha cada vez más el espacio donde los nicaragüenses pueden organizarse fuera del control estatal.
Un jueves de mediados de julio de 2022, el parlamento nicaragüense votó en minutos la disolución de otras cien organizaciones de la sociedad civil. Setenta y cinco legisladores aprobaron la medida; dieciséis se abstuvieron. Era el segundo día consecutivo en que se liquidaba exactamente ese número de grupos, y con ello el total de ONGs suprimidas desde 2018 superaba el millar: 1.058 organizaciones borradas del registro legal.
Entre las disueltas había grupos dedicados a la defensa de los derechos humanos, la protección del medio ambiente, el apoyo al periodismo, la atención sanitaria y el desarrollo comunitario. El Ministerio del Interior había solicitado las clausuras con carácter urgente, y el parlamento las concedió todas. La justificación oficial, ofrecida por diputados sandinistas, fue que estas organizaciones habían violado la ley nicaragüense. El legislador Filiberto Rodríguez fue más lejos: afirmó, sin aportar prueba alguna, que las ONGs habían usado fondos donados para intentar derrocar a Ortega durante las protestas de 2018.
Aquellas protestas habían comenzado por cambios al sistema de seguridad social y derivaron en una demanda de renuncia del presidente. La respuesta del gobierno fue violenta: la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos documentó al menos 355 muertos; organizaciones locales contabilizaron 684. Cuatro años después, el régimen seguía invocando ese episodio para justificar el desmantelamiento de las instituciones cívicas que habían surgido de él.
El presidente del parlamento, Gustavo Porras, presentó las disoluciones como una labor de ordenamiento: Nicaragua, dijo, no podía sostener más de seis mil ONGs, muchas de las cuales no funcionaban o incumplían sus propios estatutos. Anunció que el trabajo de 'limpieza' continuaría. El contexto era el de un país en crisis profunda: Ortega, en el poder de forma consecutiva por más de quince años, había ganado en noviembre de 2021 un quinto mandato —el cuarto consecutivo— con su esposa como vicepresidenta, sus principales rivales políticos en prisión y observadores internacionales denunciando fraude. La clausura de las ONGs no era una anomalía, sino una pieza más en el cierre sistemático de los espacios donde los nicaragüenses podían actuar fuera del control del Estado.
On a Thursday in mid-July 2022, Nicaragua's parliament, controlled by Daniel Ortega's Sandinista party and their allies, voted to dissolve another hundred civil society organizations. The vote took minutes. Seventy-five lawmakers approved it. Sixteen abstained. By the end of that single day, the total number of shuttered NGOs since the upheaval of 2018 had crossed one thousand—1,058 organizations erased from the legal registry.
This was the second consecutive day the parliament had liquidated exactly one hundred groups. In the span of seven months, they had already dissolved 859 organizations. The pace was accelerating. The breadth was staggering. Among those being dissolved were groups defending human rights, protecting the environment, supporting journalists, delivering healthcare, building community development programs, providing social assistance, and advancing science and technology. The government had requested the dissolutions through the Ministry of Interior, and the parliament had granted them all with what it called urgent status.
The official justification came from Sandinista deputies who claimed the organizations had violated Nicaraguan law, disrespected the legal order, and trampled on the nation's statutes. One deputy, Carlos Emilio López, dismissed them as paper organizations—entities that existed on documents but held no real presence in the lives of Nicaraguan families and communities. Another legislator, Filiberto Rodríguez, went further, asserting without evidence that these NGOs had used donated funds to attempt Ortega's overthrow during the 2018 protests. He offered no proof.
The 2018 uprising had begun over proposed changes to the social security system but quickly transformed into a broader demand for Ortega to step down. The government's response was forceful. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights documented at least 355 deaths. Local human rights organizations counted 684. The regime itself acknowledged 200. The violence had been severe enough to reshape the country's political landscape, yet four years later, the government was still using it as justification for dismantling the civic institutions that had emerged from that moment.
Parliament's president, Gustavo Porras, framed the dissolutions as housekeeping—a necessary ordering of something that had fallen into disarray. He argued that Nicaragua could not sustain more than six thousand NGOs, many of which, he claimed, were doing nothing at all. Some organizations, he said, had stopped functioning entirely. Others failed to file proper reports, violated their own bylaws, or ignored the law. The parliament, he announced, would continue this "cleaning work" until the landscape was properly sanitized.
The broader context was one of deepening political isolation. Ortega, now seventy-six years old, had been in power consecutively for fifteen years and five months. In November 2021, he had won reelection to a fifth term—his fourth consecutive—with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president. His main political opponents were in prison. International observers had documented fraud. The country was in the grip of a political and social crisis that showed no signs of resolution. The dissolution of NGOs was not an aberration but part of a systematic narrowing of the space where Nicaraguans could organize, speak, and act outside state control.
Citações Notáveis
Paper organizations. They do not exist in the lives of Nicaraguan families and communities.— Sandinista deputy Carlos Emilio López
We will continue this cleaning work. Nicaragua cannot sustain more than 6,000 NGOs that are doing nothing.— Parliament president Gustavo Porras
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why dissolve a thousand organizations all at once? Why not just regulate them differently?
Because regulation leaves room for resistance. A dissolved organization can't sue, can't protest, can't exist. It's faster and more final.
But the government says these groups were breaking the law. Isn't there a legal process for that?
There is, but it's being used as a tool. When you dissolve a hundred organizations in a day with no individual review, you're not enforcing law—you're eliminating opposition.
The parliament says many of these NGOs weren't even functioning. So what's the harm in closing them?
The harm is in the signal it sends. If you're a human rights group or an environmental organization thinking about registering, you're watching this. You understand the risk now.
Four years after 2018, why is the government still so focused on NGOs?
Because 2018 showed what organized civil society can do. The government learned that lesson. Now it's making sure it doesn't happen again.
What happens to the people who worked for these organizations?
They scatter. Some leave the country. Some go underground. Some stop doing the work entirely. Either way, the infrastructure of civic life gets dismantled.