According to the results of the Nicaraguan pollster M&R Consultants87.9% of Nicaraguans say that there is religious freedom in the country, however it is contradicted by the siege imposed on freedom of worship, imprisonment and exile of priests and expulsion of nuns.
Raul Obregon, general manager of M&R Consultores, was the one who read the results of the Public Opinion Monitoring System (SISMO) Edition 72; 1st quarter, with which it intends to get out of the way of recent allegations of attacks against the Catholic Church.
Related news: Nicaraguan dictatorship expels two Dominican nuns
It should be noted that the persecution of the Ortega regime has placed Nicaragua in fourth place on the list of the most dangerous countries for Christians in Latin America, only surpassed by Mexico, Colombia and Cuba.
At a global level, the Central American nation slipped into 50th place on the 2023 World Chase List, prepared by the organization Puertas Abiertas. It also explains that the Managua regime considers churches that denounce the “injustices and human rights violations committed by the government” as “destabilizing agents”.
This situation, the organization adds, has turned the Nicaraguan Catholic Church into a “target of hostility, which can include intimidation, harassment, surveillance, arrests and even attacks.”
Expulsion, imprisonment and obstacle to religious freedom
Although the Ortega dictatorship tries, through its paid surveys to M&R Consultores, to create a non-existent reality in Nicaragua, the concrete facts show that the Police have prevented them from even taking to the streets in processions; Added to this, he has Monsignor locked up Rolando Alvarez, whom he sentenced to 26 years in prison, plus the loss of his nationality, for the alleged crime of conspiracy to undermine national integrity.
He also has Monsignor behind bars Leonardo Urbina, parish priest of Boaco and the priest of Manuel Salvador Garciaconvicted of alleged common crimes.
Related news: Nicaraguan dictatorship expels two Dominican nuns
On the same day —yesterday, Wednesday, April 14— of the survey results, the Ortega y Murillo dictatorship expelled two Dominican nuns, who attended the López Carazo nursing home, located in the city of Rivas.
The expelled nuns are the sisters, of Costa Rican nationality, Elizabeth and rosary beads White, the latter serves as director of the Asilo López Carazo Foundation. Both arrived yesterday afternoon in Costa Rica.
The Diocese of Tilarán-Liberia reported on its social networks that the nuns were received at the Peñas Blancas border post by their sister Violeta Blanco Cubillo.
Another of the situations that contradict the data of the Nicaraguan regime is the confiscation of the monastery, property of the congregation Trappist Sisterslocated in Santa María de la Paz, in San Pedro del Lóvago.
Related news: The Dominican nuns expelled by the Nicaraguan regime arrive in Costa Rica
The new attack by the Government of Nicaragua occurred despite the fact that the association was voluntarily dissolved and the nuns left the country on February 24, 2023.
According to the Trappist sisters, it was the Ministry of the Interior (Migob) who informed them that the building was handed over to the Nicaraguan Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA).
Before this, the priest donaciano alarcon, of Panamanian origin, was expelled from Nicaragua on Monday, April 3. The religious was one of those in charge of the María Auxiliadora church, in San José de Cusmapa, in the department of Madriz.
Related news: Orteguismo accused priest Donaciano Alarcón of having “organized the people” against his dictatorship
The priest expressed to the radio station of Panama, RPC Radiothat after his forced departure through the Honduran border he met “many angels” because he assures that he was lost on the way.
“M&R’s professional credibility is on the ground”
Héctor Mairena, a member of the political council of the opposition Blue National Unity and Bank (Unab), told Article 66 that “the so-called surveys that M&R consultares periodically presents are nothing more than a propaganda instrument of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.”
“M&R’s professional credibility is in tatters; Those data they present are fabricated. It is the imaginary country that the Ortega-Murillos want to sell to national and international public opinion.
He asserted that it is clear that the majority of the Nicaraguan population rejects the Ortega regime, “but the survey will not say that, because it is clear that a huge number of citizens have had to flee the country due to the political and economic situation.”
“There are serious surveys that show that the main concern of Nicaraguans is the economy (…) so these data are inputs for the dictatorship in Nicaragua,” he stressed.
Five years after the civic rebellion of 2018, the dictator Daniel Ortega continues to affirm that what happened in the country was a failed coup attempt, but his regime is accused by thousands of Nicaraguans of being responsible for crimes against humanity.
