Dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife, vice-dictator Rosario Murillo, are the main instigators of hatred against the Church in Nicaragua and those who have ordered all the repressive actions against religious institutions in the country, involving several state institutions and therefore, they are the main perpetrators of “crimes against humanity” against religion, according to the most recent report by the Group of Experts on Human Rights on Nicaragua (GHREN), of the United Nations (UN).
The update of the report, in the second phase of investigations carried out by the GHREN, made public on July 23, in an extensive description contained in more than 50 pages, is forceful and direct in dedicating an entire section to describe how Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, since 2018, have sustained a hate speech in which they incite “discrimination, hostility and violence” against religious institutions and their members.
The UN experts also detail all the violations that the Ortega-Murillo regime has systematically, intentionally and planned against religious practice in Nicaragua.
Among the most recurrent violations of religious freedom, documented by GHREN, are threats, harassment, physical attacks, arbitrary detention, violations of the right to due process and a fair trial, arbitrary deprivation of nationality of at least 22 religious figures, and violations of the right to freedom of movement.
In addition, the dictatorship has carried out expulsions of religious men and women. As part of the repressive escalation undertaken by the regime since 2018, 84 priests, seminarians and lay people have been expelled from the country, as well as 70 religious sisters of different orders who have also been banished.
Added to this are the confiscations of church property and the cancellation of charitable, educational and Christian preaching organizations.
They also reveal that, as part of the religious persecution, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, between 2023 and 2024 alone, has banned 7,976 religious activities throughout the country, including even masses held in honor of the faithful deceased.
“Accordingly, the Group of Experts has reasonable grounds to believe that Nicaraguan security forces and authorities, as well as individuals, pro-government armed groups and Sandinista mobs, acting with the connivance of the State, committed systematic and widespread violations of the right to freedom of religion,” the report says.
The war is against Christianity
The GHREN Report points out that “the attacks and repeated assaults on temples, images, symbols, processions and other forms of religious celebrations constitute arbitrary restrictions on the religious freedom of Catholic believers and religious people and those of other Christian denominations, who were unable to freely express their faith and saw places and objects essential to the exercise of their religion affected.”
At this point, the experts point out that, until the closing of the document, “there had been no similar attacks against other non-Christian confessions,” that is, Ortega and Murillo’s war is against Christianity.
With an avalanche of testimonies and documented facts, the Group of Experts found that it “has reasonable grounds to believe that the documented violations, abuses and crimes occurred as a result of the acts or omissions of agents and representatives of various State institutions, including primarily the legislature, the judiciary, the National Police, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior (now the Ministry of the Interior).”
Furthermore, the UN investigators point out, in a forceful manner, that they have sufficient reason to believe that “the president and the vice president made use of various State institutions to systematically repress members of the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations, who were opponents or perceived as such, and that their orders were executed in an effective and coordinated manner throughout the national territory.”
Experts believe that, as established in the first phase of the report, Ortega and Murillo, together with several institutions that have followed their orders, have committed and continue to commit “crimes against humanity” against the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations.
The Group also has reasonable grounds to believe that, without the actions of the President and Vice President, the systematic violations and abuses of human rights and the crimes documented here would not have occurred or would have occurred in a significantly different manner.
Finally, they warn that “the violations, abuses and crimes investigated by the Group of Experts give rise to the responsibility of the State of Nicaragua.
They add that “in some cases, the crimes generate individual criminal responsibility, either under international criminal law or in accordance with the criminal types in Nicaraguan or third-country legislation,” which leaves a window open for Ortega, Murillo and their accomplices to be accused of crimes against humanity against the Church in any State that has jurisdiction.
