Priests are ordered to report to the police every week to take a photo and present plans for their weekly activities.
Newsroom (16/03/2025 17:36, Gaudium Press) The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has established unprecedented control over the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, forcing priests to report to the police every week to obtain authorization for their religious activities. This measure is part of a systematic strategy of persecution aimed at subduing the Church and silencing any dissenting voice.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) denounced the restrictions imposed on Christians in Nicaragua as “severe”. CSW warned that “clergy in Nicaragua are being forced to report weekly to the police to obtain approval for their weekly activity plans. Religious subject to these measures have also faced restrictions on their freedom of movement and some have reported that they have been warned that they will be detained or exiled if they do not comply with the terms of the measures.” Processions and public activities of the Catholic Church are banned, while inside the churches all activities are strictly monitored.
The repression is not limited to the Catholic Church. Evangelical churches are also targets of repression, with several of their leaders arrested, stripped of their property, banished and denationalized.
Since the brutally repressed citizens’ protests in 2018, Nicaragua has been plunged into a human rights crisis that severely affects religious freedom. The Catholic Church, because of its support for the protesters and its criticism of the regime, has come under constant attack. Many priests are under “precautionary measures”.
222 violations of religious freedom documented in 2024
The CSW report documents 222 violations of religious freedom last year. In addition, the mass closure of non-profit organizations has affected thousands of people, many of them linked to religious groups. Protestant churches lost their legal status, and some denominations, such as the Episcopal Church and the Moravian Church of Nicaragua, saw their assets threatened with confiscation.
The persecution also affected lay people involved in pastoral work. In 2024, at least 46 religious were arrested, including Carmen María Sáenz Martínez and Lesbia del Socorro Gutiérrez Poveda, collaborators in the diocese of Matagalpa. The two women have been detained since August without their families receiving any information about their whereabouts.
Nicaragua is no longer a country where religious freedom is respected, but an authoritarian state that persecutes the Church and silences any opposition, concludes CSW.
With information from AICA
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
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