He regretted the cancellation of his legal status and stated that said decision “hinders” his contribution “to the most precious good of culture”
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Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo ( REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas/File)
The Nicaraguan Academy of Language (ANL) regretted on Tuesday the cancellation of its legal status, carried out by the Sandinista majority in the National Assembly (Parliament), at the request of Daniel Ortega, and affirmed that said decision “hinders” his contribution “to the most precious good of culture”.
“With the cancellation of the legal status of the ANL, the functioning of an institution whose work has contributed to exalt the most precious asset of culture is hampered: the language”, said the Academy, in a statement signed by its director, Pedro Xavier Solís Cuadra, the deputy director, María Auxiliadora Rosales Solís, and the secretary, Róger Matus Lazo.
The dissolution of the ANL, created on August 8, 1928, was urgently approved this Tuesday by the 75 Sandinista deputies and their allies, out of a total of 91, in a session in which there was no debate.
The Legislature argued that the Nicaraguan Academy of Language did not register as a “foreign agent“, as mandated by a law approved in October 2020 and that applies to people Nicaraguan natural or legal persons who receive money from abroad, with some exceptions.
“The ANL deeply regrets the cancellation of the legal personality of an institution dedicated to the study of the language and the cultivation of Nicaraguan letters; and appreciates the shows of support both nationally and internationally”, added the Nicaraguan Academy, corresponding to the Royal Spanish Academy and member of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language.
The ANL has received the support of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE), and the Academies of the Language of Chile, Ecuador and Mexico.
The Nicaraguan parliament canceled the legal personality of the Nicaraguan Academy of Language, after 94 years of existence (AFP)
The Nicaraguan Academy recalled that “it has carried out a tenacious work in promoting the study of Spanish in Nicaragua, its cultural values and traditions through the publication of innumerable works whose linguistic and literary value has transcended the Hispanic world”.
He added that “As a member of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (ASALE), the ANL has undertaken –in conjunction with its sister academies– a fruitful labor in the participation of the great Pan-Hispanic projects such as the Dictionary of Americanisms, the two editions of the New Grammar of the Spanish Language, the Dictionary of Doubts, the Dictionary of the Spanish Language and others”.
Among the Nicaraguan academic members of the Academy are the former vice president and writer Sergio Ramírez, exiled in Spain since last year, and the poet and writer Gioconda Belli, also exiled.
The ANL was canceled this Tuesday along with 83 other NGOs, including the Enrique Bolaños Foundation, which has one of the most complete virtual libraries in the country.
With these cancellations, the number of NGOs banned since December 2018 rises to 319, including universities, think tanks, organizations that defend human rights, environmentalists, feminists, cultural, among others.
Nicaragua has been in a political and economic crisis for four years, which in 2018 left at least 355 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The crisis was accentuated in the general elections of November 7, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with their main contenders in prison.
(With information from and EFE)