The Ortega Murillo dictatorship’s hunt against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua is once again reflected in the figures. Lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, through the fifth installment of her systematization “Nicaragua: A persecuted Church?”, revealed that from April 2018 to July 2024, the Nicaraguan regime has perpetrated 870 attacks against the religious institution.
The researcher and human rights defender pointed out that the attacks included the forced exile of 245 priests, nuns, seminarians, deacons and bishops.
Related news: Ortega has exiled more than 240 priests, bishops, seminarians and nuns since 2018
He also explained that among the 245 people who left Nicaragua, there were 46 exiles ordered by the Ortega Murillo dictatorship against priests, bishops and seminarians; 90 expulsions, 81 of which were of nuns; 44 prohibitions of entry, 10 of which were of nuns; and 65 forced exiles.
Between January and July of this year, the Nicaraguan lawyer explained, 50 such departures were recorded, corresponding to exiles, banishments, expulsions and entry bans against priests, bishops, seminarians and nuns.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia rejected the proposal for new elections in Venezuela made by Brazil and Colombia in response to the crisis generated by the questionable re-election of Nicolás Maduro.
“To suggest ignoring what happened on July 28 is, for me, a lack of respect for Venezuelans who have given everything (…) popular sovereignty is respected,” said Machado in a virtual conference with Chilean and Argentine media, after being asked about Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s suggestion.
“The presidential elections in Venezuela were held on July 28 and were overwhelmingly won by Edmundo González Urrutia,” the opposition candidate responded on X, who claims to have won the election with 63% of the votes and denounced fraud.
The Brazilian president earlier suggested that Maduro could call new elections to clear up doubts about the results that gave him re-election for a third six-year term in the July 28 vote.
His Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, agreed moments later.
It has been one year since the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo ordered the closure and confiscation of the Central American University (UCA) in Nicaragua.
The Central American Province of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order that administered the university, denounced the unjustified seizure of properties, research centers, libraries and financial resources of the alma mater.
Related news: One year after the closure of the UCA, the Jesuits continue to denounce its unjustified confiscation
“The confiscation of this university has caused “invaluable” damage to Nicaragua’s scientific and cultural heritage, seriously affecting the right to education of thousands of young people.
The academic freedom exercised by hundreds of teachers, the labor rights of all staff and the right to property held by this religious organization,” the Jesuit Company stressed in a statement issued on August 15.
For the Jesuits, this attack is part of a context of “systematic repression” that continues in Nicaragua, in which “any person or institution suspected of not being in agreement with the regime” is attacked.
In the published document, the religious leaders emphasize that these violations have been classified as “crimes against humanity” by the United Nations Human Rights agency.
