Facade of the Central American University in Nicaragua.UCA
The Central American University (UCA), one of the most important and historic campuses in Nicaragua, has received another blow from Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo and this time it seems deadly: the regime ordered this Wednesday to freeze the bank accounts of the soul of the Jesuits as well as some of their highest leaders. Divergent media revealed an email the university sent to its students and staff this morning, reporting “inconveniences” with their means of payment.
“Due to inconveniences in our channels and means of payment, which are beyond our control, we do not receive payment of any fees or services from any entity of the University. “We apologize for the inconvenience and will inform you as soon as payment processing via our central box and alternative channels is possible,” the message said. The freezing of accounts is another blow by the Sandinista regime to stifle the UCA. The venue has defied official reprisals since 2018, the year of massive social protests against the presidential couple.
The Divergentes article details that the authorities of the Sandinista regime have not informed the UCA whether or not there is an investigation into the origin of the frozen funds, as was the case with the Catholic Church, whose assets in the framework an alleged investigation of “money” were confiscated money laundering. According to a source close to the Jesuit institution consulted by EL PAÍS, internal, organizational and financial movements have been reported at the site for several weeks, aimed at “lessening the impact” of a measure similar to that of the accounts.
In addition, the UCA has been in the accreditation process before the National Council for Evaluation and Accreditation (CNEA) since 2021. The delay in registration has meant that their policies could not be officially updated with government institutions and financial institutions, i.e. banks. In the absence of this update of information, the Ortega-Murillo regime, through the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (Siboif), is pushing for it to be closed “for financial management reasons”. A similar measure to the thousands of NGOs shut down by the Sandinista government.
retaliatory measures of various magnitudes
The UCA opened its doors to care for those injured in the 2018 repression and then allowed student protests against the regime. The campus was the cradle of students who protested against the fire in the Indio Maíz Biosphere Reserve and then against the reform of the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS), the trigger of the current socio-political crisis that Nicaragua is going through. Several of the students who faced the dictatorship, like Lesther Alemán, were students at UCA. Alemán was convicted of the alleged crime of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and remained in prison for more than a year and a half before finally being exiled to the US six months ago.
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The harassment of the university began with curious scrutiny by the ruling party-controlled National Council of Universities (CNU). But things escalated completely in March 2022, when the Sandinista Parliament ordered the scrapping of its constitutional 6%, separated it from the CNU and passed a reform of Law 89, the Law on the Autonomy of Higher Education Institutions. In September of the same year, the Jesuit institution launched an appeal for help to raise funds and avoid abolishing scholarships, which they failed… In the end, the university claimed to impose “budget restrictions” on students, cutting grants from 100% to 80%
In the same year, former rector José Idiáquez and vice-rector Jorge Huete were banned from the migration and immigration authorities. Both were denied entry to Nicaragua after traveling abroad. At the head of the institution was Father Rolando Enrique Alvarado López, the current rector of the UCA, who for the time being has not mentioned the freezing of the accounts.
The UCA has also received all sorts of reprisals from the National University Council (CNU), the umbrella organization for higher education in Nicaragua, and the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) over the past five years. The harassment of the CNU consisted of extensive and extraordinary reviews of the accreditations of the careers and master’s degrees, which were cumbersome and caused enormous work for those responsible.
Control of the universities is one of the ultimate goals of the Sandinista government. The first measures consisted of expelling hundreds of students and deleting their study documents. In addition, surveillance of public institutions by the National Union of Students (UNEN), the Sandinista arm of public universities, has been strengthened. In 2021, the couple went a step further with cancellations and seizures of private universities. Since then, at least 26 abolished centers have been registered by the Interior Ministry and the CNEA. This last institution argues in most cases that the universities do not meet “established minimum quality standards”. Reasons for shutting down the universities range from allegations of money laundering to Hispanoamerican University (Uhispam), “information falsification”, failure to report their financial reports and failure To as foreign agents. In recent months it has been argued that the academic offer is inconsistent or that the infrastructure is insufficient. The UCA was not exempt, but the regime has so far refrained from openly seizing the UCA.
It is not known at this time whether the freezing of bank accounts will mean the end of the UCA, which has resisted despite attacks from the regime. Higher education experts insist the cancellations and university closures are part of a plan for the Ortega-Murillo regime’s total control of all levels of Nicaraguan education. The professors, former rectors, students and political scientists surveyed agree that the ruling couple wants to eliminate plurality and free thinking at the universities and implement their totalitarian model.
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