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Speaker says Venezuelan NGOs respond to Washington
Rodriguez believes NGOs are a front for trying to destabilize Caracas
Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez claimed on Monday that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are a “Trojan horse” used by Washington to destabilize Venezuela.
After U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Brian Nichols described Caracas’ August 15 measures to regulate NGOs as a “direct attack on social and associational freedoms,” Rodriguez argued: “They are using the cover of some so-called NGOs that are totally dependent on the CIA and the State Department and are using these agencies to finance all the acts of destabilization of Venezuela and violence against the Venezuelan people.”
The initiative sets out a series of requirements for NGOs and other non-profit entities to operate in the South American country. Failure to comply will result in sanctions and could even lead to their dissolution.
Nicaragua’s Sandinista government has long been targeting these entities. On Monday, about 1,500 non-governmental organizations were closed in a single day and their assets handed over to the state. The government mainly targeted Catholic and evangelical groups seen as hostile to President Daniel Ortega. The Ministry of the Interior claimed that these organizations had failed to submit financial statements “for a period of 01 to 35 years.”
The list of entities delisted also includes charitable, sports, small business, rural and retirees associations or foundations, as well as Rotary clubs and chess clubs. Indigenous organizations and former civilian combatants between Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front and the rebels in the 1980s were also shut down.
Ortega and his vice-presidential wife, Rosario Murillo, tightened laws against NGOs after protests broke out in 2018, which left more than 300 people dead in three months. The 78-year-old ruler claimed that NGOs, especially the Catholic Church, were behind those protests, which he viewed as a coup attempt backed by Washington.
Together with the 1,500 newly created NGOs, the number of such organizations that have been dissolved since 2018 has exceeded 5,200. Under the new Nicaraguan legislation, NGOs will need to establish a partnership with the state to carry out their activities. The Sandinista regime announced this measure three days ago.
“From today, NGOs operating in Nicaragua will adopt a new operating model that we call ‘coalition of partners,'” Murillo explained last Friday.
The Sandinista National Liberation Front also argued that outlawing these NGOs was part of the order process because not all of the 7,227 NGOs registered in Nicaragua as of 2018 were still active.
Nicaragua’s crisis deepened after the November 2021 elections, which saw Ortega secure a fifth term and every opposition leader either imprisoned or in exile. Some were later deported and stripped of their nationality on charges of “treason.”
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