Nicaragua government laying waste to civil society

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaragua’s Sandinista-controlled congress has cancelled nearly 200 nongovernmental organizations this week, ranging from a local equestrian group to the 94-year-old Nicaraguan Academy of Letters, in what critics say is President Daniel Ortega’s attempt to eliminate the country’s civil society. On Thursday, lawmakers from Ortega’s party and their allies voted unanimously _ there were 14 abstentions _ to cancel 96 organizations. On Tuesday, there were 83 more. Since popular street protests turned against Ortega’s government in April 2018, the government has cancelled more than 400. The government seems intent on wiping the landscape clean of any organization it does not control.