The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) denounces the bans on traditional Holy Week activities and the attack against the Catholic Church by the Ortega regime, which they classify as “a flagrant violation of freedom of religion.”
Faced with a large number of processions, Stations of the Cross and pilgrimages, the defense organization affirms that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo “not only wants to banish and denationalize, now it also destroys the most sacred of the people: their Christian faith and their traditions, which are part of your identity. Meanwhile Monsignor Rolando Álvarez and two other priests remain unjustly imprisoned. We demand their freedom,” demands Cenidh.
Related news: Cenidh insists that the imprisonment of Monsignor Álvarez represents a crime against humanity
«This year, without processions at the national level, Holy Week will be incomplete, mutilated, the body of popular participation will be missing, but in the face of so much repression the fervor of the people must resist and be strengthened. The prohibition of Lenten and Holy Week processions in Nicaragua are a flagrant violation of freedom of conscience, religion and freedom of expression,” adds the organization’s public complaint.
The regime directed the authorities to prohibit at the national level the traditional procession of the Via Crucis that recreates the passion of Christ, which takes place every Friday of Lent prior to Holy Week, as well as the procession with the Jesus of Nazareno in Nandaime, the procession of San Lázaro in Masaya and made its own parade of carts that made a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Jesús del Rescate, in Popoyuapa, Rivas.
The Nicaraguan dictatorship has been merciless against the Catholic Church since 2022, closing Catholic radio stations, threatening religious people to force them into exile, closing organizations belonging to the Church and prohibiting processions of national importance. He has branded priests and bishops “diabolical” and “traitors.”
Little by little, Ortega added to the list of imprisoned priests, including Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, whom he sentenced to 26 years in prison and stripped of his nationality.
The bishop was deprived of his freedom since August 4, 2022, when police officers prevented him from leaving the Matagalpa Episcopal Curia, he is currently part of the list of more than 30 political prisoners.
