MANAGUA.- He regime of Nicaragua announced this Tuesday the dissolution of the Sandinista Defense Committees (CDS)neighborhood watch organizations created after the 1979 revolution, which had been relegated in recent decades.
The Sandinista Defense Committee Association (CDS), with legal personality since 1990, requested its own dissolution due to the “lack of sufficient funds,” according to a resolution of the Ministry of the Interior published in the official newspaper La Gaceta.
These committees were the continuation of the original CDS, established during the Sandinista revolutionary government (1979-1990) for neighborhood surveillance work, at a time when the United States supported the ‘contra’ rebels in their fight against the Sandinista regime. .
The CDS of Nicaragua functioned in a similar way to the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) created in Cuba by Fidel Castro after the 1959 revolution, being tools of social control and repression.
Since the return to power of dictator Daniel Ortega in 2007, his regime established the Councils of Citizen Power, which according to the opposition, operate under the same logic of community surveillance and repression.
In addition to the CDS, the Nicaraguan Association of Friendship with the People’s Republic of China and its People, registered in 2006, and three Christian entities, also requested its voluntary dissolution, according to the La Gaceta report.
In a context of growing repression, thousands of NGOs have been closed in Nicaragua since the 2018 protests against the Ortega regime, which left more than 300 dead in three months of blockades and clashes between opponents and pro-government forces, according to the UN.
The regime, which described the protests as an attempted coup d’état promoted by Washington, accused several NGOs of financing them, thus tightening the laws that regulate these organizations.
The opposition claims that as of April, 3,494 NGOs and 29 universities have been closed, in an attempt by the government to silence critical voices and consolidate its power.
This Tuesday, the Ministry of the Interior reported on the cancellation of another 10 NGOs, including six Catholic and evangelical entities, due to “non-compliance” in their financial reports. The assets of these organizations will be confiscated by the State, in accordance with the repressive law.
Among the closed entities are the Boaco Livestock Association and the Federation of Chambers of Exporters of Nicaragua, in a clear message of intimidation to any form of independent organization.
Source: With information from AFP
