Next Tuesday, November 15, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRFfor its acronym in English), will address the authoritarian drift of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against the Nicaraguan Catholic Church, revealed former ambassador Arturo McFields on his Twitter account.
The Managua regime keeps a dozen priests, deacons and laity in prison. The bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez Lagos, is being held captive in his family home in Managua. Today he turns 101 days after being locked up by police officers in the Episcopal See of Matagalpa. On August 19, he was forcibly removed from that site and transferred to Managua.
In his brutal attack on the religious, some have been accused of common crimes and others for “conspiracy to undermine national integrity and spread false news.”
Related news: They criticize at the international level the violation of religious freedom in Nicaragua
The Commission has condemned on several occasions the actions of the Ortega Murillo regime against the Nicaraguan Church. Said actions of the dictatorship include physical attacks on priests, bishops and the apostolic nuncio; the desecration of religious temples; the closure of religious media outlets; the imprisonment of priests, among others.
“Concern increases over attack on the Catholic Church. The US Religious Freedom Commission will address this Tuesday, November 15, Ortega Murillo’s attack against the Catholic Church of Nicaragua and the RENACER Law. Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is serving 100 days in unjust prison,” the former diplomat wrote on the social network.
The Ortega Murillo regime, since 2018, has strained relations with the Church in the midst of the sociopolitical crisis. The dictator accused the Catholic bishops of directing an “attempted coup” by presenting him with a route to follow to resolve the crisis, which Ortega described as a “primer” for him to leave the Presidency.
The state repression against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua has left some 55 exiled priests, two exiles and multiple legal proceedings against a dozen religious, including priests, seminarians and laity, reveals the VII Report Against Torture of the Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Never Plus.
The USCIRF religious freedom reports from 2018 to 2021 accused the dictatorial regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo of attacking the religious and worship freedom of Nicaraguans, while condemning the attacks of fanatical supporters against the Church.
The report explains that although the dictator Daniel Ortega assumes that there is “religious freedom” in the country and that his regime manifests itself in propaganda as “Christian”; Many leaders of the Catholic Church state that the dictatorship is “politicizing religion” and using the language of Christianity to manipulate public opinion.
