Banishment of evangelical priests and pastors shows the closure of freedom of worship in Nicaragua

The exile of dozens of priests, bishops, nuns, pastors, lay people and members of different Catholic and Evangelical churches in Nicaragua, according to human rights defenders, is evidence of the curtailment and direct impact on freedom of worship in Nicaragua, by order of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

Lawyer Yader Valdivia, member of the Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Never Again, said —in an interview with Article 66— that as an organization they have counted at least 50 religious people who have been banished by the Ortega regime, emphasizing that the figure reflects “the people sent to the United States and Rome, and also religious and lay people, who were also banished due to the fact of having a link with the church.”

He stressed that the number of people linked to evangelical or Catholic churches who have been exiled by the Ortega regime is higher, since in what they have counted, for example, they did not include the number of nuns who were expelled to Costa Rica and Honduras.

“This figure is just a starting point to obtain a more precise figure. The group is working to gather quantitative data, although it is not just a matter of counting, but of documentation, identifying patterns and human rights violations. The figure mentioned includes Nicaraguans, but there are also people of other nationalities who have been expelled and who are religious leaders, which increases the total,” said the Nicaraguan lawyer.

Bulletin 4 on Religious Freedom in Nicaragua, prepared by the Collective with data documented between April 1 and July 15, warns of an increase in cases of exile against people linked to evangelical or Catholic churches.

The Collective’s defenders point out, citing independent press reports, that “the dictatorship’s persecution of the Catholic Church has forced 34 priests to leave the country in the first four months of 2024,” but, from 2018 to July 2024, they point out, the number of those exiled amounts to 222, including 91 nuns, according to data compiled by researcher Martha Patricia Molina.

Dictatorship wipes out credible personalities in Nicaragua

The defender Valdivia points out that all these cases of banishment cause a great impact, not only on the personal and spiritual level of those who suffer it, but also on the social level of those who try to exercise their freedom of worship.

«The impact of all this falls on freedom of worship, a principle that is both human and a fundamental right. The Diocese of Matagalpa has been one of the most affected. One of the exiled priests commented that there were around a dozen priests left in the entire Diocese, which is not even enough to cover one priest per municipality. This is a very big impact, since priests from other municipalities have to travel to officiate masses,» said the defender of the Collective.

He also denounced that the Nicaraguan regime is “emptying the country of credible and reputable people, such as activists, human rights defenders, journalists and religious people. This exodus also affects the faithful, something that is not often mentioned in the media, but which has a great impact.”

The lawyer says that the future of the priests and bishops exiled by the Ortega regime, at least publicly, is uncertain, given that “we do not know for sure what is happening to them. There is a lot of silence about their situation. Some have been relocated to Costa Rica, the United States or to activities in Rome, but there has been no public information about their situation after their exile.”

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