Biden Does Nothing as Nicaragua Continues Brutal Crackdown on Catholics

AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis

Last Friday, police in Nicaragua conducted a pre-dawn raid on the home of Bishop Rolando Alvarez of Matagalpa, a vocal critic of President Daniel Ortega, arresting him for “organizing violent groups” and inciting them “to carry out acts of hate against the population.” The move is just the latest in the Ortega regime’s increasingly brazen attacks on religious and opposition figures and drew sharp condemnation from the Pope and even the United Nations. Noticeably silent, however, was the ostensibly Catholic President Joe Biden, who continued his pattern of idleness when it comes to speaking up for persecuted Christians around the globe.

An avowed Marxist-Leninist, Ortega helped lead a revolution in 1979 that overthrew the ruling Somoza family, after which he served as President of Nicaragua until 1990. Ortega was elected president again in 2006 and immediately began restricting government transparency and freedom of the press, along with increasingly brutal crackdowns on opposition figures. He then won re-election by wide margins in 2011, 2016, and 2021 in contests widely dismissed as sham elections by the U.S. and other Western nations.

Ortega, a militant anti-Catholic, has made the persecution of church leaders a cornerstone of his effort to consolidate control over the country. Since 2018, Nicaraguan Catholics have documented 190 attacks by the government against churches and church leaders, nearly half of all acts of aggression registered in that period. The catalog of persecutions by Ortega’s regime includes closing the remnants of religious media and publishers, desecrating holy places, fire-bombing churches, banning religious pilgrimages, and imprisoning priests and bishops. Ortega has often been personally involved in these persecutions, calling bishops “terrorists” and “devils in cassocks.”

According to one shocking report, 59-year-old priest Mario Guevara was burned with sulfuric acid while he was hearing confession. The perpetrator was arrested but avoided prison time after the regime sponsored her escape flight to Italy. On another occasion, a hooded criminal threw a Molotov cocktail into the Cathedral of Managua, causing extensive damage. Afterward, the regime blamed burning candles for the fire – but the bishop there explained that no candles were allowed in the church due to the historic paintings present.

But Ortega’s number one enemy appears to be the young Bishop Alvarez. who frequently states that he owes his religious calling to Saint John Paul II. Like the Polish Pope who aided in the destruction of the godless Soviet Empire, Bishop Alvarez frequently emphasizes that it is God, not the government, who is the source of unalienable rights, including the right to life. Therefore, no government has the right to repudiate these rights. And like John Paul II, this Nicaraguan Bishop teaches that the opposition must be devoted to living a conscientious spiritual life and not limit itself to protest alone.

The regime attacked Alvarez last week after he criticized Ortega’s socialist, atheistic culture of death by quoting John Paul II, who urged Americans in Newark in 1995 that without the virtues of self-discipline, diligent contemplation of the truth, simplicity of life, and joyful dedication to others, they would not have the inner strength to combat the culture of death which threatens the modern world.

Alvarez was arrested at his home when he tried to join believers in the Cathedral in the adoration of the Holy Eucharist. The police blocked exits, and plain-clothed officers beat him. In response, he knelt on the sidewalk and said a blessing recorded via video. The Bishop reiterated that if the resistance against a godless regime is rooted in prayer, it will bring the fruit of peace.

Earlier on the radio, the Bishop had again quoted John Paul II that the development of society does not imply de-Christianization, but in every human work, prayer sets up a reference to God the Creator. Following the example of John Paul II, the Bishop also called upon the opposition to pray the rosary “that unites us in the battle which is, first of all, spiritual and moral”.

In his focus on a prayerful life that unites, the brave Nicaraguan Bishop Alvarez echoes the call of another Catholic Bishop from the previous century who faced the same challenges. The unsung Cold War hero and Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Aron Jean-Marie Lustiger, explained that the fraternal bond between believers strengthens when every person wins their fight for good over evil. 

In 1980, Cardinal Lustiger said that our civilization needed to re-shape its moral conscience so that it could effectively defeat evil.

Born in Poland, in the family of Ashkenazi Jews, Cardinal Lustiger, who lost his mother in the death camp of Auschwitz, like John Paul II, understood that Nazism and Marxism heightened the price of the choice between good and evil, much more than in a free society.

But after the fall of Iron Curtain, facing the emergence of a death culture in his beloved France, Cardinal Lustiger referred to faithful fighters against militant Marxism as martyrs. Who is the martyr? It is the Christian who puts all his effort to rebuild that moral conscience.

That category includes all Americans in the pro-life movement as well as Supreme Court Justices who dared to undermine the foundation of militant atheism. It includes Bishop Alvarez, faithful clergy and Catholics in Nicaragua, and every person who defends the right for Christians to witness their love of God in the public sphere.

Cardinal Lustiger, a friend of the unforgettable John Paul II, a pope who also inspired Nicaraguan Catholics, once remarked that Italian dictator Benito Mussolini used to say that the leader is always right. But the truth is, responded Lustiger, it is the martyr who is always right.

Bishop Alvarez poses a particularly potent threat to the regime given his status as a Catholic leader. Manuel Orozco, an expert on Nicaragua, told PBS News that “70% of Nicaraguans say that to them, the political opinion of the religious authority at the national or the parochial level was important in shaping their political views.” Orozco also pointed out that the regime likely took the step of arresting Alvarez now because it doesn’t fear retribution from the international community – namely the United States.

Thus far, they have been proven correct in that bet. Though Pope Francis said he is following the situation in Nicaragua with “worry and pain,” he failed to mention Alvarez or any of the priests arrested with him by name. This comes on the heels of growing criticism from Catholic leaders in Latin America after the Vatican remained silent on the shuttering of Catholic news outlets and the announcement of an investigation into Alvarez by the Ortega government more than two weeks ago.

But by far the most consequential silence has been from Washington, D.C., and President Joe Biden. As a candidate in 2020, Biden often invoked his Catholic faith and the need to defend religious liberty and democracy around the world. Though Biden made a public show of banning Nicaraguan officials from entering the United States in November of last year, it was later revealed that he secretly sent a State Department official to meet with Ortega earlier this year, only to be rebuffed by the regime.

While Alvarez is just one of many religious leaders who have faced persecution in recent years, his case exemplifies a disturbing trend of ascendant left-wing governments attempting to strengthen their grip over their populations by stamping out religious belief. For the sake not just of preserving religious liberty, but of preserving democracy itself, political leaders in nations like the United States have a responsibility to call out such blatant violations of human rights and take action to stop them.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.