The Nicaraguan regime wages a war against religious freedom

Nicaragua has become one of the 20 most dangerous countries in the world for Christians, according to the International Christian Concern (ICC) Global Religious Persecution Index. The regime’s crackdown on religious groups is not an isolated campaign: it reflects a broader attack on civil liberties.

“As in many communist countries, Nicaragua has come to view religion as an enemy of the state,” the ICC said. grades in his report. “(President Daniel) Ortega has led the country’s new antagonism toward the Church, which he considers subversive to his claim to absolute power.”

He repression It began in 2018 when the Ortega regime persecuted the Catholic Church for mediating between the State and the government. protesters. Since then, targeted retaliation has become a full-scale attack on religious freedom.

“The government initially targeted the Catholic Church because it provided shelter to protesters, and clergy expressed opposition to the government’s human rights abuses.” information the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. “More recently, government actions have led to the complete shutdown of Church activities, mass incarcerations, and attacks on many other religious groups.”

Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have accused church leaders of being “agents of evil” involved in “spiritual terrorism.” They claim the clergy are inciting civil unrest and plotting to overthrow the regime.

The consequences for religious groups (Catholic and others) have been devastating. Since 2018, more than 1,100 religious entities have been forced closedmore than 70 people arrested for their religious affiliations and 84 priests forced into exile.

Surveillance and harassment of church leaders have become omnipresent, with the Interior Ministry imposing strict controls on religious activities and regulating visits by foreign clergy, according to the ICC. Holy Week processions, christmas celebrationsand even cemetery prayers They have all been banned.

The regime has frozen church bank accounts, confiscated property and closed religious media outlets. Paramilitary groups aligned with the regime have desecrated churches, looted religious sites and carried out arson attacks.

In 2023, Ortega intensified his campaign closing the Vatican Embassy in Managua and expel the papal ambassador after Pope Francis compared The Nicaraguan government to a dictatorship. By 2024, the regime had dissolved the Episcopal Diocese of Nicaragua along with 92 other religious organizations.

“Bishops and priests have been deprived of their freedom”, Pope Francis saying in this year’s Angelus prayer.

Attacking religious institutions is part of a broader strategy to crush dissent and consolidate power. Over the years, Ortega and Murillo have systematically dismantled democratic institutions, rigged elections, compromised courts and silenced critics through imprisonment, exile and harassment.

Educational and cultural freedoms have also been destroyed. Since 2021, the government has closed more than 30 universities. ortega accused the Jesuit University of Central America, the first private university in the region, of “terrorism”, forcing its closure and confiscating its assets in 2023.

Since 2018, more than 5,000 Nonprofit organizations, including secular and religious groups, have been closed. He closures They extend to groups such as the Red Cross, Save the Children, the American Chamber of Commerce, foundations dedicated to fighting diseases, sports associations, Rotary clubs and even chess clubs.

Independent media outlets have been shut down and journalists face relentless harassment. The media “have continued to endure a nightmare of censorship, intimidation and threats,” according to Reporters without borders. In 2023, more 300 Political figures, journalists, intellectuals and human rights activists were accused of treason, stripped of their citizenship and expelled from the country.

Eighty percent of Nicaraguans identify as Christians, half Catholics and 30 percent Evangelicals. In a country deeply rooted in faith, Ortega’s attack on religion is a calculated effort to stifle dissent and dismantle spaces of hope and community, strengthening his control over a nation with fewer places to turn.