Central America
Nicaragua’s Ortega proposes law to control international organizations and cooperation
Nicaragua’s President, Daniel Ortega, presented a law on Tuesday to control the work of international organizations, cooperation agencies, and diplomatic missions in the country, according to a document released by Nicaraguan media in exile, which was accessed by AFP.
The proposal was submitted to Congress, which is controlled by the government, as part of a series of laws accompanying a constitutional reform passed last Friday that grants Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo absolute control over the Nicaraguan state.
The initiative states that international cooperation “must have the consent and authorization of the government, both initially and during its implementation.”
It also stipulates that the work of these organizations “must be carried out without political, economic, social, or cultural conditions,” while respecting “national sovereignty, independence, and self-determination.”
The law expressly prohibits any type of “interference in Nicaragua’s internal affairs.”
International cooperation “must align with national priorities and be in accordance with the plans, programs, and national strategies set by the government,” the document highlights.
With this reform, Ortega further consolidates his control over international entities after reforming the “Foreign Agents” and “Control of Non-Profit Organizations” laws, which require NGOs to work only in “partnership alliances” with state entities.
Since the protests against Ortega in 2018, which he and Murillo claimed were supported by NGOs and the Catholic Church, more than 5,300 organizations have been shut down by the government. Dozens of clerics from the Church were imprisoned and later expelled to the Vatican, the United States, and other countries.
Ortega, a 78-year-old former guerrilla who ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s and has been in power since 2007, claims the protests, which according to the UN left more than 300 dead, were an attempted coup sponsored by Washington.
Thousands of Nicaraguans have fled into exile, and about 450 politicians, businesspeople, intellectuals, and artists have been stripped of their nationality in recent years, accused of “treason to the homeland.”
Central America
Guatemala reform allows Semilla Party to be reinstated amid legal battle
The Guatemalan Congress reformed a law on Tuesday that will enable the political party Semilla, led by President Bernardo Arévalo, to be reinstated. The party had been suspended by a judge for alleged irregularities in its registration amidst a judicial offensive against the president.
The reform to the Law Against Organized Crime, supported by 127 out of 160 lawmakers, prevents a judge from suspending or canceling political parties, as had been stipulated under the previous law, said ruling party legislator Samuel Pérez.
In August 2023, after Arévalo unexpectedly advanced to the second round of elections, Judge Fredy Orellana, sanctioned by Washington for being considered “corrupt” and “undemocratic,” used this law to suspend Semilla’s legal status, allegedly for presenting false signatures in its 2017 registration.
The law allowed the provisional suspension of “the registrations of legal entities” when they had been used to commit an “illegal act,” which Orellana attributed to the alleged false signatures. However, legal experts argued that this case should have been handled by the electoral court.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office, led by Consuelo Porras, also sanctioned by the U.S., is leading an offensive against Arévalo and his party, which jeopardized the president’s inauguration in January.
In compliance with the judicial order issued by Orellana, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal disqualified Semilla on November 3 of the previous year.
The new reforms now establish that this law does not apply to political organizations, which are subject to the Electoral Law and Political Parties Law, not the criminal code.
“We are telling the coup plotters ‘no more legal tricks to persecute the political opposition,’” said ruling party congressman José Carlos Sanabria, referring to Orellana and Porras.
Central America
UN experts concerned over human rights impact of Nicaragua’s new constitutional changes
A group of UN experts warned on Monday about the “devastating consequences” for human rights following the approval of a constitutional reform in Nicaragua that grants absolute power to President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo.
The UN Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua expressed in a statement their “deep concern” over the “devastating and far-reaching consequences” of the constitutional change for the fundamental rights of the Nicaraguan people.
The reform, approved on Friday by a fully pro-government parliament, grants “unlimited power” to Ortega and Murillo, elevating the vice presidency to “co-presidency.”
According to the initiative presented by Ortega, both co-presidents will coordinate the legislative, judicial, electoral bodies, and local governments.
“The reform seems to aim at formalizing the de facto dissolution of the separation, independence, cooperative balance, and mutual control between the different branches of government,” the experts noted.
The group, an independent body with a mandate from the UN Human Rights Council, also added that journalism is “practically eradicated” in the Central American country, especially now that the Constitution’s prohibition on censoring the media has been eliminated.
The reform establishes that the state will “monitor” the press and the Church to prevent them from serving “foreign interests.”
Central America
Mulino warns Trump: Darién is U.S.’s ‘other border’ in call for bilateral solutions to migration
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino reiterated on Thursday that the Darién region is “the other border” of the United States and that President-elect Donald Trump must understand this, given his announcement to toughen U.S. immigration policy.
“And I repeat what I have said: he (Trump) must know that his other border, the U.S. border, is in Darién, and we need to begin solving this issue bilaterally or together with a group of countries that contribute people to the migratory flow,” Mulino stated during his weekly press conference.
The Panamanian leader added that the United States “needs to be more aware that this (the flow of irregular migrants through Darién) is their problem. These people are not coming to stay in Panama… they want to go to the United States for whatever reasons they may have.”
In 2023, more than 520,000 irregular migrants crossed the Darién jungle into Panama, a historic figure. This year, the flow has decreased, with more than 281,000 travelers making the journey by October 31, mostly Venezuelans (over 196,000), according to Panama’s National Migration Service.
“Panama is doing what it can,” Mulino said, emphasizing the country’s significant financial investment in security, medical care, and food for migrants. However, he noted, “As long as the crisis in Venezuela persists, all signs point to this continuing, with the human drama that it involves.”
He emphasized that Venezuelans make up the majority of those crossing the jungle, with 69% according to Panamanian statistics, followed by Colombians (6%), Ecuadorians (5%), Chinese (4%), and Haitians (4%). The rest come from over fifty countries worldwide.
On July 1, when Mulino began his five-year term, Panama and the United States signed an agreement under which the U.S. government covers the costs of repatriating migrants who entered through Darién. Under this program, which is funded with $6 million, more than 1,000 people have already been deported, mostly Colombians.
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