Nicaragua revokes legal personality of the Caritas of Matagalpa

In a measure made official on 12 August, Nicaragua’s Ministry of the Interior has cancelled Matagalpa's diocesan Caritas organisation and 14 other NGOs in the diocese that has seen a series of arrests and expulsions of priests in recent days. The organisations’ movable and immovable property will be transferred to the State.

By Vatican News

Nicaragua’s Ministry of the Interior (MINT) has revoked the legal personality of the Caritas Diocesan Association of Matagalpa, one of the eight branches of Caritas de Nicaragua; and 14 other NGOs, nine of them by voluntary dissolution. The measure was approved in Managua by the Minister of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel, according to two ministerial agreements published yesterday, Monday, 12 August, in the Gaceta, the Nicaraguan official gazette.

Caritas of Matagalpa operates as a social welfare centre administered by the Catholic Church. Registered on 26 March 2009, in recent years, it has promoted “the development of the most remote communities in the Matagalpa department, giving priority to the poorest segments of the population and those lacking basic infrastructure: health and education,” as stated on the organisation’s official social pages.

The cancellation of Caritas comes against a background of tension in Matagalpa, where a series of arrests and expulsions of priests have been recorded in recent weeks.

According to the country's Ministry of the Interior, the measure against Caritas is motivated by “non-compliance” due to the fact that the organisation failed to submit its financial statements in the period 2020-2023 and that the Board of Directors was to have expired on 27 September 2022.

The assets of Caritas and other organisations will now pass to the Nicaraguan State; the Ministry indicated that the Attorney General’s Office will be responsible for the transfer of real and moveable assets.

With the cancellation of the legal status of Caritas and other NGOs, the number of non-governmental organisations banned by the government since December 2018 has risen to more than 3,600, with most of their assets transferred to the State.

Meanwhile, some Nicaraguan media also report an alleged police operation in the Cathedral of Matagalpa: agents in civilian clothes allegedly entered the church, seizing the administrative staff and threatening to expel the clergy from the country.

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