Within the framework of International Religious Freedom Day, the United States Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols, recalled that in Nicaragua the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo violates this fundamental right in the country by maintaining a persecution fierce against the Catholic Church.
Ortega keeps in prison a dozen religious, deacons and seminarians from the Dioceses of Matagalpa, Siuna, Granada and the Archdiocese of Managua. He is also in “house for jail” in Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a critical voice who pointed out and denounced human rights violations in the country.
The US official cited a tweet from the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on International Religious Freedom Day where he states that “we recommit ourselves to making this freedom that we enjoy for everyone, everywhere a reality.”
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“Ortega-Murillo continues to crack down on religious freedom in Nicaragua, as seen in the arrests of clerics associated with the persecution of Rolando Alvarez. The regime silences all independent voices. All political prisoners in Nicaragua must be released now,” Nichols wrote on her Twitter account.
In his brutal attack on the religious, Ortega has accused some of them of common crimes and others of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity and spread false news.”
Ortega “attempts” against religious freedom
The 2019 to 2021 reports on religious freedom from the US International Commission for Religious Freedom (USCIRF) accused the dictatorial regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo of attacking religious freedom and worship Nicaraguans, while condemning the attacks of fanatical supporters against the Church.
The report explains that although the dictator Daniel Ortega assumes that there is “religious freedom” in the country and that his regime manifests itself in propaganda as “Christian”; Many leaders of the Catholic Church state that the dictatorship is “politicizing religion” and using the language of Christianity to manipulate public opinion.
The document on religious freedom of the US administration blames Daniel Ortega for exacerbating the spirit of his fanatical supporters; who were pushed by his hate speech against the Church issued on July 19, 2018, when he called the bishops “coup plotters” and “terrorists”; It opened the way for acts of harassment against the Church, bishops, priests and Catholic institutions to become systematic.
The dictator Ortega attacked last September against the Catholic Church led by Pope Francis. He accused her of not practicing democracy, of being a “dictatorship” and a “perfect tyranny” and of having used “her bishops in Nicaragua to carry out a coup” against his regime in 2018.
