Nicaragua’s Interior Ministry alleged in a report that the targeted universities and nonprofits ailed to disclose financial details adequately and did not identify their directors. The Ortega-controlled assembly accused the nonprofits of improperly profiting from their legal status.
Newsroom (07/02/2022 6:30 PM Gaudium Press) Last week, February 3, 2022, the Nicaraguan national assembly ordered the revocation of the legal status of five universities — including a Catholic university — along with several Catholic educational and charitable projects, marking the latest act of repression targeting supposed opponents of President Daniel Ortega.
Projects that would be forced to close in the Diocese of Estelí include an association of parochial schools, an agricultural institute, a Catholic cultural association, the diocesan justice and peace commission and the diocesan Caritas chapter. The Universidad Católica del Trópico Seco also lost its legal status.
The country’s Interior Ministry alleged in a report that the targeted universities and nonprofits thwarted attempts at oversight, failed to disclose financial details adequately and did not identify their directors, according to the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa. The Ortega-controlled assembly accused the nonprofits of improperly profiting from their legal status.
Msgr. Carlos Avilés, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Managua, said that retired Estelí Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata “was very critical of the government and denounced many things.”
“It’s all false and a pretext to repress,” Msgr. Avilés said. “They want to mess with the Diocese of Estelí.”
He added that Caritas chapters had had difficulties presenting paperwork to the Nicaraguan Interior Ministry. In a diocese like Estelí, he said, Caritas often delivers grains and food, received as “in-kind” donations. Still, the Interior Ministry wants church officials to put a value on donations.
Nicaragua’s Catholic Church tried to promote dialogue as an exit to the political crisis in 2018 and allowed protesters to seek refuge in parishes. But the Ortega regime turned paramilitaries on protesters. It also holds political prisoners whose families have been harassed while holding prayer services in churches.
Ortega was reelected in November, but church leaders condemned the election as fraudulent.
“There is no institutionalism here,” Msgr. Avilés said. “There is no law, and nothing is independent.”
Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Báez of Managua said in a tweet after the announcement of universities being cancelled, “Neglecting quality education, impeding critical thinking and seizing universities are ways of concentrating irrational power, subjugating people and stealing their futures.”
Compiled by Saju Hasmukh
