The ambassador for International Religious Freedom of the United States, Rashad Hussein, expressed that the Government of Joe Biden is “concerned” about the use of mobs and street shock forces by the Ortega regime to intimidate and besiege to priests of the Catholic Church of Nicaragua.
Hussein, in an interview granted to the Nicaraguan journalist Iván Taylor in the framework of the IX Summit of the Americas, which takes place in Los Angeles, even revealed that there are “regular and direct” contacts to address the issue of religious persecution suffered by the pastors of the Catholic Church.
“We are concerned about the situation in Nicaragua. President Joe Biden himself is informed that the government of Daniel (Ortega) works with mobs sympathetic to the regime to attack religious communities throughout the country and it has to do with the fact that priests have been branded as terrorists and coup plotters,” Hussein said.
“We are making a call to that government, that it has to respect the religious freedom of all the people, that religious leaders are not the target of attacks by these groups,” he added.
The Catholic Church of Nicaragua is experiencing a new repressive escalation against it, whose latest expressions of repression have been the persecution and police siege against the Bishop of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Alvarez Y Father Harvey Padillafrom Masaya, who was surrounded in his parish for nine days by police officers.
Arrest of Father Garcia
This escalation continued with the recent arrest of Father Manuel Salvador Garcíafrom Nandaime, who is accused of assaulting a woman, a statement that occurred after an incident in which the priest rebuked some policemen and regime fanatics who came to harass him at his parish.
Hussein said that they were aware of Father Manuel Salvador García’s situation and also asked that he face a fair judicial process, in which “the truth prevails.”
“I heard about this particular case and we are following it closely, going over what may have occurred. But in general, any attack or imprisonment of religious leaders for their practices or for giving their political views is not correct,” Hussein stressed.
“We want to make sure that in any case, there is a due process in which the truth prevails, especially when there are accusations that he committed a crime,” he added.
“We hope that (the priest) will have the opportunity to respond to the accusations that are made. It would be inappropriate for the Government to use this as an excuse to charge anyone for merely commenting on any subject. That is our position in general, ”he stressed.
Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, Vicar of the Family of the Archdiocese of Managua, in an interview on the show This weekpointed out that the same priests have asked themselves “why so much persecution, so much repression, so much harassment that there is?”, since the Church is not a political party and does not have aspirations in that sense.
Direct and regular conversations with the Government
Hussein revealed that religious persecution is a “key consideration” in determining sanctions against regime operators. These combined with supposed discreet approaches with the regime to reach a political understanding.
“We are using a whole range of diplomatic tools to deal with these cases (of violence against religious). We talk regularly and directly with the Government of Nicaragua. Publicly, we talk about our concern about what is happening inside the country”, commented the ambassador for Religious Freedom.
“We work very closely with civil society movements to have the most recent information on what is happening and to be able to support those who know and are related to these leaders, to learn about these human rights abuses and then there are the sanctions”; she stated.
This same Monday, in a civil society forum as part of the Summit activities, Brian Nichols, Joe Biden’s Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, warned that they are preparing a new round of sanctions against the regime.
According to Hussein, the sanctions should target the operators of religious persecution and he considers them a tool to support civil society, which, from his point of view, is the main voice calling for the restoration of civil liberties in Nicaragua. .
“We are talking about sanctions with travel restrictions, as well as financial sanctions, which would be the same as those already imposed. Those that impose restrictions on those who violate human rights and freedom of religion. We want to be sure that we not only apply a tool, but that we see the panorama in a comprehensive way and use all available resources to deal with the issues of human rights abuses”, Hussein referred to this issue.
“We are working with civil society, not only with the government, but with ordinary people, who are the ones who ask for the release of those who detain, those who besiege, the victims of violence in the country,” the ambassador for Religious Freedom concluded.
