Chavismo targets NGOs

The Chavist-controlled National Assembly approved on Tuesday in the first discussion a law that will allow it to exercise a greater degree of control over non-governmental organizations operating in Venezuela.

The Law for the Control, Regulation, Performance and Financing of NGOs reproduces to a certain extent the onslaught that dictator Daniel Ortega has been waging against this type of organization in Nicaragua for some months now.

In the Venezuelan case, Chavismo has argued that there are at least 60 organizations that have “absolutely political” purposes, and therefore should be subject to this type of regulation.

The measure proposed by Chavism’s number two, Diosdado Cabello, has already begun to generate terror within groups of this nature operating in the South American country.

In the absence of a political party structure or strong trade groups in Venezuela, NGOs have become institutions that channel certain demands of society.

“They are appendages of organizations that operate in the world to guarantee imperialism its operation in the entire world. They started with social, humanitarian purposes, today the NGOs operating in our country have to do exclusively all with the political sphere, with the precise purpose of generating destabilization,” Diosdado Cabello said when commenting on the bill on Tuesday.

At the moment, it is not known when this initiative will enter the second parliamentary discussion.

With information from LGI