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Nicaragua churches face worst ever persecution: NGO

Nicaraguan Catholic bishop Rolando Alvarez speaks to the press at the Santo Cristo de Esquipulas church in Managua on May 20, 2022. More than 50 religious, including 43 priests, were banished from Nicaragua by the government of Daniel Ortega since the 2018 anti-government protests, according to a report published on October 30, 2024, by the NGO Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Mas (Nicaragua Never Again Collective). (Photo by AFP)

By AFP

More than 50 representatives of the Catholic Church, including 43 priests, have been banned from Nicaragua since protests against President Daniel Ortega in 2018, a non-governmental organization said Wednesday.

"Churches in Nicaragua are suffering in the 21st century the greatest persecution in the country's history," Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Mas, which works in exile from Costa Rica, said in a report.

The Central American nation's government has "arbitrarily" detained at least 74 religious figures and stripped 35 of their nationality since 2018, it said.

"The country had never had so many priests imprisoned, and so many religious men and women persecuted and expelled. Not even in times of war," the report said.

The protests against Ortega were met with a crackdown that the United Nations said left more than 300 people dead.

Ortega, a 78-year-old former guerrilla, branded the demonstrations an attempted coup promoted by the United States and backed by the religious community.

Some 450 politicians, businesspeople, journalists, intellectuals, human rights activists and religious figures have been expelled from Nicaragua and stripped of their nationality since February 2023, accused of "treason."