(UPDATED): ORTEGUISTA ASSEMBLY STRIPS CISAS FROM ITS LEGAL PERSONHOOD, CONFISCATES ASSETS

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED TO ADD COMMENTS FROM ASSEMBLYMEN RODRIGUEZ AND NAVARRO.

Orteguista Assemblyman Filiberto Rodriguez introduced a law initiative that stripped the Centro de Informacion de Asesoria en Salud (CISAS) from its legal status as a non-profit. The project passed in a vote that wasn’t even close, as all 71 Orteguista representatives voted in the affirmative.

CISAS works in the area of public health. Earlier this week, the regime expelled Ana Quiros, the organization’s director, to Costa Rica.

According to documents submitted by Rodriguez, CISAS lost its legal standing because it deviated from its stated mission, which is restricted to public health educational efforts, including training in matters of preventative health.

CISAS “denaturalized the goal of legal personhood, by engaging in other activities that are not covered in its goals and objectives […]. They utilized their legal status as an organized scheme to apply for, receive, distribute, and facilitate funding that was used to disrupt public order and engage in actions that destabilize the country.”

In other words, since Ana Quiros participated in protests, as is her right as a Nicaraguan citizen, the organization she directed was certainly up to no good. Quiros’ activism is all the proof we need. In fact, the document presented by Rodriguez mentions violations of Law 147, which regulates non-profits and establishes reasons for stripping an organization from its legal status. However, the document does not provide any concrete proof to support its claim that CISAS did violate the law.

There are no documents, no dates, no smoking gun. There’s just words, and those words were enough to not only end CISAS legally, but also to confiscate all its assets and freeze its bank accounts.

The Ortega Propaganda Machine is already spreading its version of events. An article on La Primerisima’s webiste claims that CISAS “managed funds for the coup”. The piece is accompanied by a picture of burning buildings.

CISAS is the first non-profit to lose legal personhood, and it may not be the last. Orteguista Assemblyman Rodriguez warned other nonprofits. The same fate could befall them, should their directors be linked to “groups that promote protests against the government,” reported El Nuevo Diario. According to Rodriguez, the Assembly has a duty to ensure that non-profits follow the law.

If there were another anomaly, we have the duty to cancel the legal status of those organizations. In any case, the Ministry of the Interior is charged with investigating, following up, and controlling this thing. That is why we have a Department that deals with registration and control of non-profits.

Mr. Rodriguez and other Orteguista Assemblymen may have the Instituto de Estudios Estratégicos y Políticas Públicas (IEEPP) on the short list of non-profits that act “anomalously”. IEEPP is a local think tank that focuses on public policy, civic engagement, and democracy. Along with the vote on CISAS, local media reported that IEEPP had been summoned by the Ministry of the Interior. Felix Maradiaga is the executive director of IEEPP. The regime accused him of being at the top of a criminal organization that deals deals in drug trafficking, murder, and terrorism. Maradiaga has been in exile since at least July, after a mob of Orteguista sympathizers beat him up in Leon.

Now, IEEPP has received a more ominous warning came straight from the halls of the Assembly. Assemblyman Wilfredo Navarro stated that IEEPP needed to think about its actions

IEEPP needs to get their act together. They need to figure out whether or not they’re complying with the law, or whether they’re defending foreign interests or lending themselves to the machinations of those that organized the coup. We don’t persecute anyone without reason. We apply the law when the statutes of an organization are violated. Organizations must stick to their remit. If they stray from it, it will lose its legal status. It’s that simple.

Ortega sympathizers abroad, like Max Blumenthal, accuse IEEPP of nefarious intent, based on the fact that the organization has received over $200 thousand dollars of funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) (see funding summaries here). In June, Blumenthal wrote that such funding was “laying the ground for insurrection in Nicaragua“.

The actions against CISAS come two days after US sanctions against Rosario Murillo. If the regime goes after IEEPP as well, the measures could be interpreted as retaliation for the sanctions, even though the United States is not affected in the slightest. Projects funded by US sources are affected through asset siezure.

READ THE BILL (IN SPANISH)
https://bit.ly/2FYcEO6