The Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior closed the Scout Association and ordered the confiscation of its assets, alleging alleged non-compliance in its financial reports, as reported in a publication in the official newspaper La Gaceta.
Among the scouts’ assets confiscated was the El Coyotepe Fortress, an old military structure on top of a hill in the city of Masaya, south of Managua. The site was visited by hundreds of national and foreign tourists annually.
That old fortress, where a scout school camp operated in Nicaragua, and located in the city of Masaya, neighboring Managua, was confiscated in 1983 during the first Sandinista Government (1979-1990), and returned to the Scout Association by the Administration of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in 1990.
In a statement, the National Scout Committee confirmed that they were illegalized and announced the immediate cancellation of “in-person activities, with or without uniform” in Nicaragua.
«The national leadership of the Nicaraguan Scout Association made every possible effort to avoid this outcome. However, we were not successful. Despite this, we will not give up and will continue to explore alternatives that allow us to continue fulfilling the mission of the Scout Movement in the national territory, in accordance with what the laws establish,” the Committee indicated.
Last Friday, the Nicaraguan Government canceled the legal status of the Nicaraguan Scouts Association, and 9 other associations that functioned as non-profit organizations.
The Nicaraguan Scout Association, whose legal personality was granted in May 1979, was closed for not reporting its financial statements for the periods 2020 to 2022, and operating with an expired Board of Directors since September 2020, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
In May 2017, President Ortega participated in the celebration of the hundred years of the Scouts Association of Nicaragua, which was originally founded in 1917 in the Caribbean city of Bluefields.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second with his wife, Rosario Murillo. , as vice president, with her main contenders in prison or in exile.
The government of Daniel Ortega said this Monday that they would soon announce “the reopening” of the historic site, without providing more details.
Along with the Scout Association, the Managua government canceled seven other non-governmental organizations under the same allegation of financial non-compliance.
In total, there are more than 3,000 NGOs closed by the Ministry of the Interior, today called the Ministry of the Interior, for alleged financial failures.
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