After the recent prison threats made by Nicaragua’s deputy dictator, Rosario Murillo, against religious leaders, assuring that they had committed “crimes against spirituality,” a priest said Article 66 that what the spokeswoman for the regime reaffirms is “her hatred against the Catholic Church.”
“The vice president’s attack on the priests is because every day she realizes that her government is losing moral authority before all the people and at an international level, because the only thing the Church does is be the voice of those who have no voice; the Church has always walked with the people, ”said a Catholic leader from Boaco on condition of anonymity.
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“The Church has always denounced what is unjust in the eyes of God, and the dictatorship that wants to impose itself in Nicaragua does not like that, that is why it is a visceral hatred – of Rosario Murillo – against the priests,” said the religious .
He emphasized that the Ortega dictatorship has the “coercive power” to apply the laws at its convenience against people they consider a “danger,” “but they do not have the moral power.”
«They —Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo— know that nobody believes them and that is why it is a hatred against the Churches directly. Also, what irritates them the most is knowing that the Nicaraguan people are with the Church, because the people know that the Church has given its life for the people,” he pointed out.
“There is no fear of being imprisoned”
Regarding the threats by Rosario Murillo to imprison more priests, the prelate affirmed with aplomb that “if they put us in jail or anything happens to us, we are calm because God is with us.”
“We do not have hate, but they want to slander us that we are promoters of hatred and war, which has never been the case.” He also reminded Ortega that “The Sandinistas, when Somoza called them vandals, went to take refuge in the churches, because they knew that the Somocista guard respected the temples.”
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He added that history does not change. «They —the Sandinista Front— had an opportunity, but they disappointed the people, they rose again in a fraudulent way and they continue in power in a fraudulent way. But the Church is not going to be silenced, because the Church speaks with the power of the Holy Spirit».
He affirmed that despite the constant police siege against Monsignor Álvarez, “the lady —Rosario Murillo— knows that reality is different, and that Nicaraguans no longer want more Sandinismo in our history.”
In addition, he does not rule out the possibility that Ortega’s justice system imprisons more Catholic priests, charging them with common crimes. «They can invent crimes against Monsignor Rolando -Álvarez- to other priests, you see how they took the nuns -sisters of Charity- from the country».
According to the priest consulted, the actions of the dictatorship is “because they already feel lost and even more so when they see the support of the people for Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, and that gives them a headache, then they lose control and out of control they can commit a lot of imprudence, which which means that they themselves are discrediting themselves».
Murillo wants to use the law to do “his whim”
For his part, lawyer Yader Morazán explained that the threats from Rosario Murillo, Wilfredo Navarro and Carlos Emilio López, “the only thing that shows is the interference of the Powers of the State and the instrumentalization of the justice system to prosecute acts that do not constitute crimes, and they are freedoms recognized by law.”
The jurist explained that “the consequences of the “legal” actions against religious, “is the materialization of whims that do not enjoy the appearance of legality, because what is a crime in Nicaragua is the apology of crime and criminals, and provocation, conspiracy, induction and proposition, but to commit specific crimes.
However, he warned that what is a crime is limiting rights to religious freedom in the country. «The first, called “Disruption of religious or ceremonial acts” (art.190CP) and the second, “Aggravated kidnapping” (art. 163 and 165 subsection “B” of the Penal Code). Without ignoring others.
Until now, the dictatorship keeps two imprisoned priests behind bars, accused of common crimes. It is already more than 48 hours that Monsignor Álvarez has been besieged by the Police.
