Through a virtual hearing, the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), provided this Tuesday, its report on the deterioration of religious freedom in Nicaragua, as well as persecution and imprisonment to priests.
At the same time, the opportunities of US policy to “support religious actors and communities that are under siege” of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo were highlighted.
religious news: International organizations demand the end of religious persecution in Nicaragua
The USCIRF noted that this year, the Nicaraguan government has deepened its pattern of harassment against the Catholic Church, “such as subjecting Catholic clergy to direct arrest and imprisonment, and some priests facing several years in prison on trumped-up charges.”
Among the outrages against the Catholic Church, the Commission highlighted the expulsion —in the month of March— of Monsignor Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, Apostolic Nuncio in Nicaragua since 2018, “for inexplicable reasons.”
He also recalled that in August of this year, the police authorities at the service of the Nicaraguan dictatorship surrounded the Episcopal Curia in Matagalpa where Bishop Monsignor Rolando Álvarez was, “an open critic of the regime, and arrested him and several of his companions”.
For her part, USCIRF President Nury A Turkel, stressed that the Nicaraguan government “has turned its anger against Catholic affiliated organizations by arbitrarily shutting down charities and expelling their workers, stripping universities of funding and legal status, shutting down the media, and eliminating NGOs.” .
Ortega attacked the Church for defending human rights
Turkel also noted that President Ortega’s growing crackdown on religious freedom began when he lashed out at the Catholic Church “after he helped protesters and individual Catholic clergy express their opposition to the government during peaceful protests in April 2018.” ».
He added that the Ortega Police have violated religious freedom, “unnecessarily canceling or significantly reducing the celebration of various masses, processions and Catholic rituals.”
Related news: Monsignor Álvarez accumulates 102 days under kidnapping
Meanwhile, the commissioner, USCIRF, Frederick A Davie He pointed out that “last month, the Biden Administration announced a list of new sanctions against individuals and entities in Nicaragua to hold the Ortega-Murillo regime accountable,” which means more pressure on the Nicaraguan regime that after the municipal elections has intensified its repressive level.
To date, the Ortega regime maintains its repression against the Catholic Church, keeping at least 12 priests in the country’s jails and forcing at least 50 others into exile.
