Cancelling the legal status of the Catholic relief organization Caritas came just days after the regime abducted and banished several priests from the Matagalpa dioceses.
HAVANA TIMES – Nicaragua’s Interior Ministry officially annulled the legal status of the Matagalpa Dioceses’ Caritas Association, generally known simply as Caritas, a Catholic relief and development agency. The decisioin canceling the NGOs right to operate, along with another 14 non-governmental organizations, was published in La Gaceta, the official government gazette, on August 12. Nine of the fifteen organizations had voluntarily dissolved.
Caritas of Matagalpa, which operated as a center for social services, was administered by the Catholic Church. In recent years, this Church has suffered ever more brazen attacks from the regime led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Caritas Matagalpa was officially registered in March of 2009 to promote “the development of the most remote communities in Matagalpa department, giving priority to the poorest sectors of the population and those lacking basic infrastructure for health and education,” according to the organization’s Facebook page.
The current cancellation comes in a context of governmental repr
