Nicaraguan dictatorship shuts down more organizations, including Dominican nuns

Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo (left) and her husband, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega / Credit: Inti Ocon/AFP via Getty Images

ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 13, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

The new year has seen the Nicaraguan dictatorship cancel the legal personhood of 15 nonprofit organizations, adding to the more than 5,400 nongovernmental organizations shut down since 2018 by the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and “co-president,” Rosario Murillo.

The official government newspaper La Gaceta announced on Jan. 8 the “voluntary dissolution” of 11 of these organizations, including Save the Children and the Dominican Nuns Foundation of Nicaragua.

According to its website, Save the Children has been working in the Central American country since 1986. “Save the Children’s work in Nicaragua centers on four program areas: education, health and nutrition, child rights governance, and child protection in addition to having the ability to respond to potential humanitarian situations,” the organization indicated, adding that it had 46 people working in Managua and Matagalpa.

Also among the 11 organizations that were “voluntarily dissolved” are the Ebenezer Christian Missionary Foundation, the Fundamental Baptist Church Association of Matagalpa, and the Help for Nicaragua Foundation.

Four of the 15 organizations were canceled “for failing to comply with their obligations”: the Nicaraguan House of Spirituality, Culture, History, Anthropology, Archaeology, and Art Foundation; the Comprehensive Services Association for Women; the Christ Is Coming Pentecost Ministry Foundation; and the Río Prinzapolka Foundation.

The decision to cancel the 15 organizations was made known through two ministerial agreements approved by the minister of the interior, María Amelia Coronel Kinloch.

In 2024, the dictatorship canceled approximately 1,700 nonprofit organizations. On Aug. 19 of last year alone, the dictatorship closed a total of 1,500 organizations, of which 678 were Christian, including Catholic and evangelical entities.

In its 2025 global report, the evangelical organization International Christian Concern charged that the dictatorship has used the Ministry of the Interior to persecute “hundreds of churches, aid groups, and other religious organizations” and had closed down 315 religious organizations in 2023.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.