On June 2, the Nicaraguan Parliament approved a bill for the creation of the White Cross, attached to the Ministry of Health, after shutting down the Nicaraguan Red Cross (CRN), on the grounds that it violated its “principles of impartiality and neutrality” during the social protests of 2018, and threatened “the peace and stability of the country,” the Nicaraguan National Assembly said in a statement.
It added that the new entity will attend to the emergencies of Nicaraguan families and communities at risk and in vulnerable situations.
“Cancelling the legal status of the CRN is meant to create absolute dependence of the citizens on the regime,” Eliseo Núñez, Nicaraguan political analyst and former congressman in exile, told Diálogo on June 18. “They want people to depend on the dictatorship for any kind of aid, be it health, concessionary credits, or advice.”
Disaster and blackmail
The cancellation of the humanitarian organization, which had been working in Nicaragua independently since 1934, worried the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), which expressed concerns about the closure and the future impact on emerging humanitarian aid in that country, the IFRC said in a statement.
According to Núñez, people used to call the Red Cross for any medical emergency and had it on hand when a natural disaster occurred. Now they will have to call the regime, which will provide services at its whim, creating absolute dependency. “We must not forget that this is part of social control. The population will have no choice but to ask the dictatorship for help, and the dictatorship is going to blackmail them.”
Now, in the event of a natural disaster of great magnitude, Nicaraguan society will be completely exposed. “The international community will not be able to provide funds if it is not through the oligarchy to manage them with the political bias with which it manages everything,” said Núñez.
In addition, Nicaraguan pro-regime parliamentarians ordered that all assets, goods, and shares belonging to the Red Cross become the property of the regime and be managed by the new organization, Argentina’s Infobae reported on May 12.
Nicaragua, due to its geographical position, is exposed to multiple natural phenomena such as hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, heavy rains, droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, landslides, and geological faults, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua reported.
Sweeping away civil society
On March 7, the Sandinista regime also liquidated the non-profit organization Caritas, the social arm of the Catholic Church as a “voluntary dissolution,” Nicaraguan news site Confidencial reported.
Daniel Ortega called the Catholic Church a mafia. He accused it of being anti-democratic and suspended diplomatic relations with the Vatican after Pope Francis called the repressive system of Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo a “communist and Hitlerian dictatorship,” Peruvian news site Expediente Público reported.
Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer and human rights defender, told Nicaraguan daily La Prensa that in the last seven years 32 nuns and 39 priests were expelled into exile. The church registered at least 529 attacks since 2018; 90 of them committed so far in 2023.
One of the most emblematic cases is that of the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, who is in prison. He was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison for “treason, spreading fake news, and undermining national integrity,” La Prensa reported.
“He [Ortega] seeks an alternative to founding a religion. It seems crazy, but that’s what he is looking for,” Núñez said. “He sees himself as the divinity of that religion and once he dies, Rosario will probably play the role of his vicar on earth to communicate with him.”
Since April 2018, the Ortega-Murillo regime has closed universities, associations of professionals, artists, women, farmers, and ranchers, as well as religious missions, local and foreign nongovernmental organizations and even cancelled the legal standing of the Nicaraguan Language Academy, German platform DW reported.
It also massively prohibited lawyers and notaries public from exercising their functions for their role in the last five years, accompanying political prisoners and their families to demand justice. Similarly, 222 political prisoners were expelled from Nicaragua and stripped of their nationality and property.
Using different strategies, the Ortega-Murillo regime has eliminated more than 3,500 non-profit associations, DW reported.
The Ortega-Murillo regime “sweeps civil society away. The closure of the Red Cross is the final straw, the closing piece practically,” Núñez said. “This is no longer a paradox, it’s insolence, absolutely cynical.”
Anti-capitalist rhetoric
The Ortega-Murillo regime has been increasing its aggressive rhetoric against the United States for its freedom of speech and trade. “That anti-capitalism based on their resentment with the United States because they are rich […], it is not the United States’ fault,” Núñez said. “Ortega is embedding himself in the most retrograde left in Latin America to project himself in the anti-Western axis proposed by Russia.”
With the spread of globalization, this anti-democratic rhetoric, has less and less impact. “The Ortega-Murillo [regime] does not make a connection with the new generations,” Núñez said. “They don’t really suffer the consequences of total isolation because they continue to have a private bank that they blackmail constantly to do what they want.”
The pro-democracy groups must have “a single narrative,” a single strategy in an axis of actions where they coordinate capacities, Núñez said. This can make hope grow in Nicaragua. “The decision of the international community is not to affect the Nicaraguan people, but the time will come when the decision will be like the one taken when someone has a cancerous tumor.” It will have to be uprooted.