Nicaraguan government abolishes 83 more NGOs, civic groups

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has ordered the closure of 83 more civic groups and non-governmental organizations. The move Tuesday brings to 200 the number of such closures this year, and a total of 320 since protests against the Ortega regime erupted in 2018. The institutions closed include the Nicaraguan Academy of Letters, which was founded in 1928 and had included opposition writers like Gioconda Belli and Sergio Ramírez. The country’s congress is dominated by Ortega’s Sandinista party and it voted 75 to 0, with 16 abstentions, to close the groups.