The Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior ordered the closure of 101 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which includes the Missionaries of Charity Association, the congregation founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta and dedicated to serving the poorest.
The request for the closure of the 101 NGOs was requested by Sandinista legislator Filiberto Rodríguez in a June 22 letter presented to the National Assembly.
In the document, broadcast by the Nicaraguan media outlet ConfidencialRodríguez sent “the Legislative Decree Initiative for the Cancellation of the Legal Personality of Various Associations/Foundations, requested by the National Directorate of Registration and Control of NPOs (non-profit organizations, Ndr), for due process of law.”
The text, which could be debated this Tuesday, affirms that the Missionaries of Charity Association “has failed to comply with its obligations” according to the law that regulates NPOs, the money laundering law, the financing of terrorism and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
According to the regime of Daniel Ortega, the missionaries are not accredited “by the Ministry of Family to function as a Nursery – CDI, Home for girls and Asylum for the elderly”, nor “do they have an operating permit by the Ministry of Education to carry out learning reinforcement ” and its “financial statements reported to the Ministry of the Interior do not coincide with the documents presented in the supervision”.
The list of organizations that the Government has ordered to close also includes the Catholic Foundation for Human Development Assistance for Nicaraguans, the Spirituality Foundation for Children of Nicaragua, the Maternal Mi Infancia Foundation, the Diriomito Children’s Care House Association, among others.
According to the EFE agency, the Missionaries of Charity Association was created on August 16, 1988 and opened after the visit that Mother Teresa of Calcutta made to Nicaragua, during the first government of Daniel Ortega (1985-1990). The Sandinista regime had already ruled the country since 1979, after the fall of President Anastasio Somoza.
The missionaries of charity administer the Immaculate Heart of Mary Home in the city of Granada, where they take in abandoned adolescents or victims of abuse.
In addition to spiritual and psychological help, minors receive regular classes in music, theater, sewing, beauty and other trades.
In the capital, Managua, the nuns run a nursing home, providing them with food, clothing and other care.
The Catholic association also develops a school reinforcement project for minors at risk and manages a nursery for poor children, mostly children of single mothers and street vendors.
If the National Assembly, with a Sandinista majority, approves this initiative, there will be 758 NGOs declared illegal at the request of the Ortega government.
Daniel Ortega orders the dissolution of the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta