The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his co-president and wife, Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua continues to persecute the Catholic Church and other Christian communities. Source: CNA.
The regime is now keeping Catholic priests under surveillance, checking their mobile phones, and demanding weekly reports on their activities in addition to restricting their freedom of movement.
The Nicaraguan newspaper Mosaico CSI reported that “for the priests who remain in Nicaragua, homilies must be entirely theological. They cannot speak on topics related to the Church’s social doctrine or social criticism”.
According to the news outlet, priests “receive frequent visits from police officers who check their mobile phones to see if they are communicating with bishops and priests outside the country or with journalists.”
Earlier this month, the international Christian organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide published a report describing the dictatorship’s measures against religious leaders, including the requirement to submit weekly reports to the police, share details of their planning, and prohibit them from leaving their municipality without government authorisation.
The CSW report also denounced the ban on religious processions and marches as well as “overt and covert government surveillance.”
The international organisation warned that “preaching about unity or justice or praying for imprisoned religious leaders or even for the general situation in the country, for example, can be considered criticism of the government and classified as a crime”.
The CSW report said the Nicaraguan dictatorship needs to uphold human rights by releasing imprisoned religious leaders and political prisoners and restore Nicaraguan citizenship to all those whose citizenship was arbitrarily revoked.
It also called on the government to restore the legal personhood of the more than 5000 “civil society organisations that have been arbitrarily outlawed” and to unfreeze the bank accounts of universities, nongovernmental organisations, and religious groups throughout the country.
FULL STORY
Nicaraguan dictatorship tightens monitoring of Catholic priests (By Walter Sánchez Silva, CNA)
