The Ortega mayors have subjected many priests in the majority of the 27 municipalities in the departments of Estelí, Madriz and Nueva Segovia, by exercising control of religious activities in Catholic churches, conditioning aid for parish repairs or preventing the carrying out of some public celebrations of the parishioner.
While the priests are forced not to question the attitude of the authorities of the Mayor’s Offices in the hands of the Sandinistas to avoid actions that lead to physical attacks, smear campaigns, persecution and even legal proceedings, as occurs with various kidnapped religious leaders in prisons due to judicial processes without guarantees ordered by the presidential couple of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Some parish priests of Catholic churches located in various municipalities in the department of Nueva Segovia, agreed to speak on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals, and stated that the masses are constantly monitored by officials from those municipalities or by well-known cadres of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
“Here they come, because everyone knows them, and they sit in the rows of the back benches and there they are recording with their cell phones. Before they did not know how to attend masses and now they do not fail, I want to believe that it is possible that they have converted to Catholicism and that they are seeking salvation and God”expressed one of the priests consulted.
They hijack religious activities
The religious explained that the activities of the Purísimas dedicated to the Virgin Mary, were assumed as their own in that municipality by the Sandinista authorities of the mayor’s office.
“Here they came and set up altars almost at the door of the temple and next to the park and they spent carrying out activities such as delivering gofios, sugar cane and baskets full of sweets and singing, but they never consulted us or coordinated with the church.”ended by saying the priest who asked not to specify which place he was referring to, but pointed out that the same thing happens in Catholic churches in other municipalities of Nueva Segovia.
Days before the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, the Sandinista authorities of the mayor’s office of the municipality of Somoto, head of the department of Madriz, installed illuminated altars of the Virgin Mary in front of the central park and to one side of the Santiago Apóstol temple. The mayoress Dania Sugey Martínez Mondragón, directed the organization of the altars, for which they did not take into account the priests in charge of the church in this town.
“It seems that they are the leaders of the Catholic Church directing how processions, masses, church activities or baptisms and weddings should be organized. You see them in the masses, in the processions carrying the saints and they even organize political activities here in front of the temple.”said “Azucena”, 53, who identified herself as a faithful Catholic in the city of Somoto.
Several Catholic parishioners who are part of the work commissions of the churches for religious activities, fundraising, assistance to low-income families and support to repair temples, have stated that parents no longer rule the churches. “These people (from the mayors’ offices) have taken away authority from the priests, every time we have to carry out some activity of the church we have to communicate with them to see if they allow us to do it.”said “Martha”, a resident of Somoto.
She, along with a group of women, participates in bible studies in some Somoteño sectors, in addition to being part of the work commissions to raise funds for the church and relates that “Now even the Police have prohibited the holding of meetings in the neighborhoods or houses”.
In Somoto, many Catholic parishioners know that their priests remain silent to avoid confronting the authorities of the Ortega-Murillo regime. “It is not that they are afraid of them, because if God is with them who, against God, but they already know how the government is like, they even send you to jail. Now they don’t even respect the Christian faith that the vast majority of the Nicaraguan people profess and they even invent such surveys saying that the majority converted to evangelical Christianity”exposed “Celina”, who fears reprisals because two of her children work for the State.
They arrive at masses in Estelí
Also in various municipalities in the department of Estelí, the churches are constantly monitored by envoys of the regime who monitor the masses. “They are Ortega supporters who are well known in the town for being violent Sandinistas who come and sit on the benches in the back when they didn’t even come to mass before,” said a woman who said she was part of the ladies dedicated to cleaning and cleaning the masses. officiated at the El Calvario church, located southwest of the city of Estelí.
A priest from one of the municipalities in the department of Estelí commented that since 2018 donations from organizations that helped poor people in communities affected by the drought with food had stopped being received.
“Before, when Monsignor Juan Abelardo Mata was there, we delivered food packages, clothing and medicines, but now it is no longer possible because the Government does not allow it, even if you get the resources, and they tell you that it is not the responsibility of the Church but of the State. ”, said the priest who asked not to be identified.
