The Government of Nicaragua, through the Ministry of the Interior, ordered this Thursday the closure of another 7 private universitieswith which the number of houses of higher education illegalized since last December rose to 14.
The Ministry of the Interior canceled the registrations of the seven universities, four from the United States, two from Costa Rica and one from Panamawhich were registered as non-profit organizations, according to the official newspaper La Gaceta.
The Interior portfolio argued that the seven higher education centers failed to comply with their obligations, including not reporting their financial statements for more than 10 years according to fiscal periods, with detailed breakdowns of income, expenses, trial balance, details of donations (origin and beneficial owner).
In addition, they did not report their boards of directors from the country of origin, previous donations from abroad to the Department of Associations, and lack of identity documents for their directors, legal representative in Nicaragua and fund providers.
Nicaraguan opponents protested in Costa Rica and Spain against Daniel Ortega
The canceled universities of American origin are Florida International University, Michigan State University, Wake Forest University and the University of Mobile Corporation.
Those of Costa Rican origin that have been banned are the Thomas More University Association (UTM) and the Central American University Association of Business Sciences (Ucem).
Meanwhile, the one of Panamanian origin is the Fundación Universidad Particular en Ciencias del Mercado.
The closure of these seven universities joins the five that were outlawed on Wednesday by the National Assembly, with a Sandinista majority, at the request of the Ministry of the Interior.
The study centers affected by the Parliament are the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (Upoli), the Catholic University of the Dry Tropics (Ucatse), the Popular University of Nicaragua (Uponic), the Nicaraguan University of Humanistic Studies (Uneh) and the Paulo Freire University (UPF). .
In mid-December, Parliament canceled the legal personality of the Hispanic American University (Uhispam) and then did the same with the University of Mobile Latin America Campus Foundation (Fumlac).
The Nicaraguan ParliamentThe closures have been justified by alleging that the universities “have failed to deliver the financial reports to the Department of Registration and Control of Non-Profit Civil Associations”or because its “Board of Directors is headless.”
Students would not be affected
The state National Council of Universities (CNU) promised that students will not be affected in their careers or in their degrees, and even promised that they will enjoy lower fees, once they are absorbed by the government education system.
With this, the illegalized local entities were raised to 87, at the request of the Ortega Executivesince the sociopolitical crisis broke out in Nicaragua in April 2018, which left 355 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The Ministry of the Interior has also canceled the registrations of three American and three European NGOs.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the controversial general elections on November 7., in which Ortega was reelected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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