MEXICO CITY (AP)—Earlier this month Nicaragua shuttered seven radio stations belonging to the Catholic Church and launched an investigation into the bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, accusing him of inciting violent actors “to perform acts of hate against the population.”
This just isn’t the primary time President Daniel Ortega has moved aggressively to silence critics of his administration. In 2018 the federal government raided the headquarters of the newspaper Confidencial, led by journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, who is taken into account one of the vital distinguished critics of Ortega. Then, throughout 2021, authorities arrested seven potential presidential candidates for that 12 months’s November elections.
The political standoff between the church and the Nicaraguan government is now in its fifth 12 months, ad infinitum.
Here’s a take a look at the fraught relationship between the church and the federal government amid a political standoff that’s now in its fifth 12 months, ad infinitum.
Who’s Daniel Ortega?
Ortega, 76, is a former guerrilla with the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front who helped overthrow dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 and first served as president from 1985 until he left office in 1990 after being voted out.
He lost three more elections after that before returning to power in 2007. He won a fourth consecutive term within the 2021 ballot, which is widely discredited since he faced no real opposition.
Ortega’s opponents commonly compare him to Somoza for his authoritarian tendencies, and in addition accuse him of dynastic ambitions. His wife, Rosario Murillo, is his powerful vice chairman.
A social security reform in 2018 triggered massive protests backed by Catholic leaders.
Under Ortega, Nicaragua has cultivated strong ties to allies Cuba and Venezuela, two staunch foes of the U.S. government.
How did the unrest begin?
A social security reform in 2018 triggered massive protests backed by businesspeople, Catholic leaders and other sectors. The federal government’s response was a crackdown by security forces and allied civilian militias through which no less than 355 people were killed, about 2,000 hurt and 1,600 jailed, based on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Political stability has never fully returned.
Nicaragua is predominantly Catholic, and the church was near the Somozas from the Thirties until the Seventies. Under Ortega, Catholic leaders have often backed the country’s conservative elite.
Months before last 12 months’s vote, a poll found that support for five opposition candidates put Ortega’s re-election in real doubt. Inside weeks all five were arrested, together with two other potential candidates. Authorities accused them of responsibility for the 2018 unrest, saying it was tantamount to a “terrorist coup” attempt purportedly backed by Washington.
“Ortega decided to suppress any possibility of losing. … And that meant arresting everyone,” political analyst Oscar Rene Vargas told The Associated Press back then.
What role has the church played?
Nicaragua is predominantly Catholic, and the church was near the Somozas from the Thirties until the Seventies, when it distanced itself from politics after many abuses were attributed to the dictatorship. The church initially supported the Sandinistas after Somoza’s ouster, but that relationship frayed over time attributable to ideological differences. Under Ortega, Catholic leaders have often backed the country’s conservative elite.
When the protests first erupted, Ortega asked the church to function mediator in peace talks, though they ultimately failed.
The Nicaraguan church has been sympathetic toward the protesters and their cause. In April 2018, Managua’s cathedral sheltered student demonstrators and was a spot for collecting food and money to support them.
The Nicaraguan church has been notably sympathetic toward the protesters and their cause. In April 2018, Managua’s cathedral sheltered student demonstrators and was a spot for collecting food and money to support them.
Figures resembling Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes and Managua Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Báez have been outspoken in rejecting violence. Brenes called the demonstrations justified, and Báez rejected any political decision that might harm the people. Báez left the country in 2019 on the Vatican’s request, a transfer that was lamented by the opposition and celebrated by the ruling Sandinistas.
Ortega has responded by accusing some bishops of being a part of a plot to overthrow him and calling them “terrorists.”
In March the papal nuncio in Managua, Monsignor Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, who participated as a mediator and lobbied for the discharge of jailed government opponents, was forced by Ortega’s administration to go away the country in what the Vatican called an “unjustified decision.”
Ortega has accused some bishops of being a part of a plot to overthrow him and called them “terrorists.”
What in regards to the latest church-state conflict?
The church radio stations were shuttered by the federal government Aug. 1, and police investigating Álvarez, the Matagalpa bishop, accused him of “organizing violent groups.”
Álvarez has called for profound electoral reform to “effectively achieve the democratization of the country” and in addition demanded the discharge of some 190 people he considers political prisoners. Last month he staged a quick in protest of what he called persecution against him.
Since Aug. 3, authorities have confined Álvarez to the episcopal complex where he lives. After six days without making public statements, he reappeared Thursday in a live social media broadcast at a Mass, accompanied by six priests and 4 lay people who find themselves also unable to go away the complex.
Since Aug. 3, authorities have confined Monsignor Álvarez to the episcopal complex where he lives.
The Archdiocese of Managua has expressed support for Álvarez. The conference of Latin American Catholic bishops decried what it called a “siege” of priests and bishops, the expulsion of members of spiritual communities and “constant harassment” targeting the Nicaraguan people and church.
On Saturday, a whole bunch of Nicaraguans attended a Mass under a heavy police presence after the federal government prohibited a non secular procession in Managua.
Church leaders announced a day earlier that the National Police had banned the planned procession for Our Lady of Fatima for reasons of “internal security.” As a substitute, the church called the faithful to come back peacefully to the cathedral.
Has there been any response from the Vatican?
For nearly two weeks, the Vatican was publicly silent in regards to the investigation of Álvarez. The silence drew criticism from some Latin American human rights activists and intellectuals.
On Friday, Monsignor Juan Antonio Cruz, the Vatican’s everlasting observer to the Organization of American States, expressed concern in regards to the situation and asked each parties to “seek ways of understanding.”
Cruz’s remarks got here during a special session of OAS through which its Everlasting Council approved a resolution condemning Ortega’s government for the “harassment” and “arbitrary restrictions imposed on religious organizations and those who criticize the federal government.”
Cruz said the Holy See wishes to “collaborate with those that are committed to dialogue as an indispensable instrument of democracy and guarantor of a more humane and fraternal civilization.”
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Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield on the Vatican and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.
