Nicaragua – Jesuits of Central America issue Communiqué
In view of the recent cancellation of 50 NGOs by the Government of Nicaragua, among them two institutions belonging to the Society of Jesus in Nicaragua, the Central American Province of the Society of Jesus has issued the following communiqué:
Communiqué
We wish to communicate to the Nicaraguan people and to the friends of Nicaragua beyond the borders the following:
1. On May 9, the Gaceta, Diario Oficial, number 83, published the cancellation of the legal status of the Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli Association (formerly known as the John XXIII Institute) and the Central American Historical Institute (IHCA). Both institutions belong to the mission of the Society of Jesus in Nicaragua.
2. The IHCA was founded in 1981 as a center for analysis, communication and social action, making its own the evangelical option for the poorest in its service to the Nicaraguan people. For more than four decades it has been dedicated to investigate, analyze and make known the national and Central American reality through the magazine Envío; to accompany training and organization processes with war disabled people; to train children, adolescents and young people in leadership development; to accompany migrants and their families in the promotion and defense of their rights. Benefiting hundreds of people in different departments of the country.
3. The "Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli Association" was born in 1961 under the name INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH AND SOCIAL ACTION JUAN XXIII, being the first institute of the nascent Central American University (UCA). In the 1980s, when research was transferred to the faculties of the UCA, the name was changed to "Instituto de Acción Social Juan XXIII". Subsequently, in August 2015, in response to the development of the work and the mission, it changed its name to "Asociación Ángelo Giuseppe Roncalli", a legal entity that had been constituted in 1994 by Antonio Fernández Ibáñez, SJ, then director of the Institute. The work was known as the Roncalli-Juan XXIII Association. Its mission was to contribute to the effective exercise of the human right of Nicaraguans to have access to decent housing and health, through sustainable management in the construction of social housing and the social sale of medicines; promoting in this process the self-management capacity of the people "in their communities". At the time of closing, it was present throughout the national territory through its different programs: housing (50 municipalities, 3,857 houses built, 15,430 beneficiaries); health (66 municipalities, 122 social sale of medicines, 42 mobile brigades, 350,000 beneficiaries per year); integral ecology projects (110 communities, 17,740 producers benefited).
4. We wish to assure that both IHCA and the Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli Association, in the exercise of their mission to serve the Nicaraguan people, always observed and complied with the laws in force in the country and in the Constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua. The ethics, professionalism and moral solvency of both institutions and the personnel that collaborated with them is more than proven by the beneficiaries of their respective missions.
5. The Society of Jesus regrets the closing of the IHCA and the Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli Association, which since their foundation have been dedicated to ensuring that the most vulnerable populations in Nicaragua can "have life and life in abundance" (Jn 10:10).
6. In view of this reality, the Society of Jesus wishes to state that it will continue with its mission of accompanying the Nicaraguan people.
San Salvador, El Salvador, May 11, 2022
Source: CPAL
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