The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murilo has committed four crimes against humanity of the 11 contemplated in the Rome Statute against the church in Nicaragua, including the Catholic, evangelical and moraba churches as part of the repression that began after the position they took. Catholic leaders after the anti-government demonstrations of 2018, as highlighted by the Nicaragua Never Again Collective in its latest report presented this Thursday, October 24.
Among the crimes committed by the regime against religious people are: imprisonment, torture, group persecution and deportation, crimes that, in the opinion of the organization, threaten not only religious people and the country, but also humanity, which is why they should be judged under the principle of universality by the international community.
«The perpetrators of these crimes have followed direct orders from high state officials. When we talk about a State policy we understand that a pattern is followed in the attacks or crimes, that there is a specific organization, planning and direction.»says the report that was presented by Salvador Marenco and Wendy Quintero, representatives of the Collective.
Imprisonment of religious
The report indicates that from 2022 to date, at least 74 religious people have been arbitrarily detained, including 11 evangelical pastors, most of them sentenced behind closed doors and without guarantees of due process, also under the shadow of the regime, with Sandinista judges and mounted witnesses.
Among the 74 religious people detained, the cases of the first priest detained, Salvador García, in June 2022, stand out; Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of Matagalpa and arrested on August 19, 2022, after a siege of the diocesan curia by police forces for his strong criticism of the Ortega regime.
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Father Óscar Benavides, arrested on August 14, 2022, accused of conspiracy against national security and sentenced to 10 years in prison for publicly criticizing the Ortega government during a homily. Benavides was exiled to the United States in February 2023 along with 222 other political prisoners.
Father José Urbina, accused of spreading false news during masses, was arrested in July 2022 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Father Harving Padilla, arrested on August 19, 2022 along with Monsignor Álvarez. Also accused of conspiracy. Father Padilla was released from prison and exiled in February 2023.
Torture in regime dungeons
The regime was not satisfied with the kidnappings or arbitrary detentions of the religious, it took its crimes even further and carried out torture against the religious. The bulletin states that some priests reported that they were kept under constant interrogation for more than three months, in which they exercised psychological violence.
Among the psychological tortures were threats to family members, which were reported to the detainees to generate stress and anxiety; the prohibition of prayers and rosary recitation, deprivation of medical care, confinement in cells without sunlight and in inhumane conditions, as well as prolonged isolation. All of these tortures were reported to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
«They stripped us naked and made us do squats completely naked in front of many officers, they took us to court like that… they gave us pumpkin soup but they put a laxative in it. Thus, when they were interrogating you, you had stomach pain and diarrhea and they told you that you could go to the bathroom if you spoke,” a priest denounces in the report.
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Two cases of torture that were pointed out in the report, considered serious, are the forced disappearance of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, who remained isolated for 43 days in the detention center known as “El Infiernillo”, without access to medical care, which led to to international demonstrations and demands against the regime so that he could be presented to his family and the population in general.
The case of Monsignor Urbina Rodríguez, who was reported to have been deprived of medical care during his detention, despite having chronic and serious illnesses such as thrombosis in his feet, diabetes and hypertension, was confined in the smallest cell, known as La Chiquita as part of the dictatorship’s torture against religious people.
«They hit me on the head and made me answer, when they interviewed me they loaded the gun and put it on the table… As they took me to the interrogations the blows increased, they hit me in the face and broke a tooth, they hit me with an AK (an officer)»a priest told the Collective.
The report also records as torture suffered by religious people sexual violence characterized mainly by forced nudity, which was denounced by at least 9 priests and lay people. The victims were forced to do squats when they were naked and sometimes these were performed in front of police officers of the opposite sex.
Persecution and exile of religious
After the national dialogue, as an attempt by the opposition to stop the regime’s repression against the 2018 protests, the Catholic Church played an important role in the country’s crisis, serving as a mediator between the opposition and the dictatorial government; However, the actions of the religious were taken by Daniel Ortega and mainly by his wife, Rosario Murillo, as a declaration of war.
From that date on, the Catholic Church experienced a historic moment, the cruelest persecution that has been recorded in Nicaragua. The regime prohibited religious demonstrations, including those that are part of the country’s religious culture, such as Holy Week processions and festivities to saints and masses.
The capture of religious, the harassment of parishioners, the closure of 1,500 non-governmental organizations linked to the church such as Cáritas, the siege of churches, closure of media outlets including television and radio, the de facto closure of the diocese of Matagalpa, among others, they are part of Murillo’s avalanche of attacks against religious freedom.
The exile began on February 9, 2023. The regime included eight priests among those banished to the United States, in addition to 14 lay people detained for being linked to the church, with a total of 22 in this first group, many of whom were arrested in August 2022.
The second banishment of priests took place on October 18, 2023, among them were the priests Manuel Salvador García Rodríguez, José Leonardo Urbina Rodríguez, Jaime Iván Montesinos Sauceda, Fernando Israel Zamora Silva, Osman José Amador Guillén, Julio Ricardo Norori Jiménez and Cristóbal Reynaldo Gadea Velásquez.
The priests Álvaro José Toledo Amador, José Iván Centeno Tercero, Pastor Eugenio Rodríguez Benavidez, Yessner Cipriano Pineda Meneses and Ramón Angulo Reyes were also exiled. In January 2024, another 18 religious were exiled and imprisoned between the Christmas and New Year holidays in December 2023, among them Monsignor Álvarez.
In August 2024, another group of 7 priests was exiled, including Víctor Godoy, Jairo Pravia, Silvio Romero, Edgar Sacasa. Of the 135 released and exiled in September 2024, it is estimated that at least 13 were religious, in addition to almost a dozen lay people arbitrarily detained for having participated in religious activities.
Dictatorship creates unconstitutional laws as instruments for its retaliation
For the organization, the creation of the Law for the Defense of the People’s Rights to Independence… (Law 1055), Special Law on Cybercrimes (Law 1042) and Law on Loss of Nationality (Law 1145), are unconstitutional and violate multiple international human rights treaties that allow the regime to define at its convenience what constitutes a threat, criminalizing any manifestation of opposition, including sermons and speeches by religious leaders.
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Between 2021 and 2024, this Collective has systematized a total of 111 public cases of Nicaraguans who were denied entry to Nicaragua and denationalization of 452, thus violating a right protected by international law and the Constitution in article 20 and article 46 , which provides for the full validity of the rights contained in the Universal Declaration.
Several priests were convicted under the Cybercrimes Law, also known as the “Gag Law.” The regime accused them of promoting false news on social networks. The dictatorship imposed sentences of up to 10 years in prison. Furthermore, Law 1055 or the Law of Treason has been used by the Sandinista regime at will and whim.
