Sandinista Dirty War Against the Catholic Church Persists
There is an illegitimate Sandinista strategy being steadily executed to undermine and destroy the Roman Catholic Church and its presence in Nicaragua. Ironically, the Sandinistas were brief allies with the Church, whose support they enlisted to return themselves to power two decades ago.
But since 2018, the Sandinista regime has initiated a ruthless and relentless campaign against the Church and the Church community. The aim of erasing its influence from the hearts and minds of Nicaraguans is to submit all civil society so as to stop all and every source of critique or opposition to the régime. It’s the sort of open but dirty war that Latin America has seen before.
While lay believers are regularly harassed and intimidated, the repressive forces of the regime have lately focused on the clergy. Frs Eugenio Rodriguez Benavides and Leonardo Guevara Gutierrez, both of whom were associated with the now-banned Caritas organization in Nicaragua, alongside Fr Jaime Ivan Montesinos Sauceda, were seized under suspicious circumstances last May.
Reports of four Roman Catholic priests being arrested in separate incidents in Northern Nicaragua in the last four weeks signal that the Sandinista war on the Church is far from over: on September 8, Fr. Osman Amador was seized by a paramilitary anti-riot squad inside the cathedral in Esteli, and on October 1, Frs. Julio Norori, Erick Ramírez, and Iván Centeno were also apprehended by plainclothes men in separate instances in other northern locations.
Their abductions have sparked outrage and concern, as they unveil a wider pattern of Sandinista political and spiritual repression. There is no official report of their arrests, no charges are usually laid, and their whereabouts are often unknown. When charges are presented, they are preposterous fabrications. The unlawful confinements of these latest four bring the total number of Catholic clerics currently kidnapped to 9. Monseigneur Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa, also remains imprisoned. A Sandinista Kangaroo court reminiscent of the Stalinist Moscow Trials condemned him to 26 years in prison on fabricated charges of treason and plotting to overthrow the government. The assaults on the Diocese of Matagalpa, in particular, are connected to the imprisonment of Monseigneur Álvarez.
The recent freezing of bank accounts for national dioceses constitutes a tactical strike on the Church's ability to operate effectively within Nicaragua's borders. Catholic charities and schools, due to the sudden freeze of church accounts, face serious damage in this struggle. Deep-seated concerns about sustaining their operations without funds precede a looming crisis in the country's precarious educational framework.
From Matagalpa's riverbanks to Siuna's streets to the coastal city of Bluefields, none have escaped this swift financial crackdown, orchestrated through the financial institutions of Bancentro, BDF, and Banpro. Canadian dissidents recently learned of the devastating effects of the government freezing their bank accounts for demonstrating contrary views to Justin Trudeau's policies. This calculated move against Nicaragua’s Church's financial foundation is closely intertwined with the suppression of the church-led initiative to build a hospital in the Diocese of Estelí.
The voices of trusted Church leadership in the country remain silent under these circumstances. Nicaragua's ranking Church official, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, is missing in action. In April 2019, the Vatican ordered Monseigneur Silvio Baez, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Managua Archdiocese and the country's most articulate bishop, into exile to Miami after multiple Sandinista death threats against him.
As the Beijing- and Moscow-backed Sandinista regime persists in its calculated assault on the Church, evidence of their intention to erase the Catholic heritage of Nicaraguans accumulates but has not been prominently featured in North American and European newspapers.
Since May 2018, the Sandinistas have maintained their grip on power through malignant force and an illegitimate election. The expropriation of the Jesuit Central American University last August is one of the most prominent examples. Entire orders of nuns have been ejected from the country, including The Sisters of Charity, the order founded by Mother Theresa of Calcutta. The priestly Jesuit Order, of whom Pope Francis was a member, has also been expelled from Nicaragua. In order to justify their persecution of the Church, the Sandinista presidential couple continuously makes unfounded claims that the church is organizing terrorist cells around the country.
It’s a bogus blanket accusation, much like the charges of racist misogyny against anyone opposing woke Liberal policies in Canada. In early 2022, Ottawa also accused trucker protesters of attempting to overthrow the government with Moscow funding. Managua claims that those they brand as terrorists are funded by the big bad government of the United States, yet no evidence has been presented to substantiate these claims.
In addition to the harassment, arrests, and imprisonment of Catholic clergymen and the numerous Catholic schools and universities that have been closed, Catholic properties are being confiscated, and violence and intimidation directed towards Catholic faithful has increased. Catholic media and radio stations have been suppressed, and restrictions placed on Catholic religious festivals, processions, and gatherings.
These actions not only abuse the human rights and political freedoms of individual Nicaraguan citizens but also constitute violations of the freedom of religion and worship upheld in civilized societies, which form part of the pillars of any democratic society. Nicaragua has seized to be either of those things under the Ortega-Murillo regime.
The regime fears the moral authority of the Catholic Church, as it remains the last independent civil society organization in Nicaragua. It is the sole remaining institution from which citizens can speak out against human rights violations, whimsical imprisonments and torture, extra-judicial abductions, political corruption and tyrannical abuses in the country.
The systematic warfare against the Church highlights the ruling couple's obsession with controlling every aspect of Nicaraguan life, a totalitarian impulse, to be sure. The Sandinistas are determined to erase all voices within the country who are perceived to challenge their sickly authority by daring to speak out against the abuses and injustices of their regime. But the Nicaraguan Church can no longer remain passive while the wolves devour its flock.