Nicaragua's Ministry of the Interior has declared 18 employers’ organisations illegal for “non-compliance” with the law and lack of transparency, according to a resolution published on Monday in the official gazette.
The banned organisations include the Higher Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep), associations representing coffee exporters, agricultural businesses and the textile industry, and the country's chambers of commerce and services, real estate, construction, fisheries, micro-credit, industry and tourism.
They “failed to complete the registration process, presenting faulty information” on their accounting statements, without giving details of their income and expenses, or without supporting documents, according to the resolution published on Monday.
Nearly all of Nicaragua’s employers’ organisations have now been banned. On February 3, the government of President Daniel Ortega had already declared the Association of Private Banks illegal, along with 12 other organisations, including the Association of Traders of the Central Market of Managua.
In all, more than 2,000 associations, NGOs or employers’ organisations have been declared illegal in Nicaragua since the adoption of restrictive laws imposing strict controls on them.
