Pope Francis hardened his tone to refer to the Nicaraguan dictatorship, led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. He described that they are unbalanced, communists and Hitlerites.
In the interview with the Argentine media Infobae, the Supreme Pontiff used the word “guarangas”, which according to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), “guarango” means “uncivil, rude”. The word is used in four South American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.
He Oxford Languages defines “guarango” as someone “who is rude, cheeky, rude or vulgar.” The word is used in the Spanish-speaking countries of the Southern Cone, such as Argentina, where Francisco is from.
Related news: Opponents assume words of Pope Francis as a “support” to the people of Nicaragua
Users on social networks have published various messages using the word that the pope used to describe the Nicaraguan dictators. They have even been called “guarango toads” and dozens of other references to the allusion to his Holiness.
“Pope Francis has allowed us to coin a new descriptive term, short and powerful, to refer to the piricuacos batrachians: neo-Nazi guarangos,” wrote a netizen on Twitter.
Francisco compared Daniel Ortega’s way of governing with the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler or the communist tyrannies of the 20th century. “With great respect, I have no choice but to think of an imbalance in the person he leads,” the pope said.
“It is something that is outside of what we are experiencing, it is as if it were bringing the communist dictatorship of 1917 or the Hitlerite dictatorship of 1935, bringing the same here…”, Francisco stressed.
Until now, the Supreme Pontiff had been very diplomatic with the Nicaraguan dictatorship, but Ortega’s latest attacks have been virulent against the Church.
According to the former Argentine ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Paula Bertol, “guaranga” means “rude, treacherous, fourth class, aggressive… a bit of all that. And I would add that this dictatorship is much more than that.
The dictator and his wife have branded the bishops, priests, and popes as a mafia, a perfect dictatorship, tyranny, coup plotters, demons, whitewashed sepulchres, terrorists, and a string of pejoratives against the Church.
Daniel Ortega accused Bishop Rolando Álvarez, currently a hostage of conscience of the dictatorship, of being arrogant, mad, rabid and deranged”, after refusing to board the plane for exile to the United States on February 9.
A day later, on February 10, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison for alleged crimes of treason and propagation of false news. Francisco affirmed that Monsignor Álvarez is “a very serious man, very capable. He wanted to give his testimony and did not accept exile ».
“The Pope has never been silent”
Researcher Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church”, which documents the attacks of the dictatorship of the Ortega Murillo regime against the Catholic Church, assured that the public expected an “immediate pronouncement” from the pope.
«The Pope has never been silent, he has remained praying for what is happening in Nicaragua; However, his current public statements have been made in a prudent time, when he observes that there are no ways out or means, “explained the researcher.
Molina indicated that the Supreme Pontiff, bishops and priests cannot be expected to act in the same way as the laity. “The Pope has made an excellent description of what the dictator is when comparing him to one of the most disastrous characters in history such as Adolf Hitler,” he said.
The expert points out that now what is expected is a “more bloodthirsty response” from the Ortega Murillo dictatorship towards the Nicaraguan Catholic Church.
