The Nicaraguan dictatorship has kicked off the new year by cancelling the legal status of 15 non-profit organisations, bringing the total number of shuttered NGOs to over 5,400 since 2018. This move is part of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo’s, broader crackdown on civil liberties and religious freedom. The latest casualties include Save the Children, which has been working in Nicaragua since 1986, and the Dominican Nuns Foundation of Nicaragua. Other organizations that have been “voluntarily dissolved” include the Ebenezer Christian Missionary Foundation, the Fundamental Baptist Church Association of Matagalpa, and the Help for Nicaragua Foundation.
The regime’s actions have been widely condemned, with the International Christian Concern charging that the dictatorship has used the Ministry of the Interior to persecute “hundreds of churches, aid groups, and other religious organizations”. In 2024 alone, the dictatorship canceled approximately 1,700 non-profit organizations, including 678 Christian entities. The regime’s crackdown on religious freedom has made Nicaragua one of the 20 most dangerous countries in the world for Christians, according to the International Christian Concern’s Global Religious Persecution Index.