AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis
During his traditional New Year’s Day message on January 1, Pope Francis expressed concern over the reported crackdown on Catholic Church leaders and followers in Nicaragua, imploring listeners to “pray insistently” to find “a path of dialogue to overcome difficulties.”
Francis’s plea came following news that at least 16 church leaders, including a bishop, had been arrested in the last two weeks of 2023. This round of arrests marks the latest escalation of Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega’s targeting of the Catholic Church that began when he returned to power in 2007.
For centuries, the Catholic Church has been at the core of Nicaragua’s culture and social life. The first Catholic bishop took jurisdiction in the country in 1532, and the Christian faith has remained an important part of life there ever since. In 1983, the late Pope John Paul II described Nicaraguans as a “noble people, so rich in faith and Christian traditions.”
During the Nicaraguan Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, the Moscow-backed Sandinistas (among them Ortega) attempted to use the Catholic Church to spread their Marxist-Leninist ideology under the guise of so-called “liberation theology.” Although the revolution was opposed by John Paul II and the church leaders, it was ultimately successful in overthrowing the U.S.-backed Somoza regime, paving the way for persecution of Christians in Nicaragua.
Ortega first came to power in 1979, after which Nicaragua gradually fell into poverty – directly leading to a surge of illegal narcotics and illegal immigrants to the United States that continues to this day. Although some left-wing American academics have taught that Ortega was a victim of an “undeclared war” launched by President Ronald Reagan, this analysis completely ignores Ortega’s oppression of his own people and the brutal authoritarian nature of his rule – as well as Ortega’s support for Cuba and other communist revolutionaries in Latin America.
Ortega remained in power until 1990 when he lost his re-election bid to Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro in a shocking upset. During this time period, Ortega remained viscerally antagonistic toward the United States. The only U.S. ally inside Nicaragua was the Catholic Church, which criticized the Ortega government’s attack on civil liberties. As Ortega took control of the press and cultural institutions, the Church remained an oasis of free speech, independent thought, and resistance to oppression.
After his return to power in 2007, Ortega took full control of all of Nicaragua’s governing institutions, installing himself as a de facto dictator. Alongside this power grab came a renewed assault on the Church.
Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo – whom Ortega installed as his vice president – has called Catholic priests “children of the devil” and “organized mafia.” Ortega, meanwhile, has accused the church of “conspiring” against him and has reinstated the Sandinista Ministry of the Interior, a Cold War-era government agency that previously engaged in espionage against the Church.
According to The New York Times, there have been “more than 770 attacks” against the Church since just 2018, including the high-profile arrest and imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Alvarez in 2022. Alvarez was subsequently convicted of treason and sentenced to 26 years in prison and has since been subject to torture and maltreatment.
Two priests and one senior Catholic layman, who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity, told me that even mentioning Bishop Alvarez is enough to warrant a visit from government enforcers. At least two other priests have been imprisoned for refusing to stop referencing Alvarez in their sermons.
Other Nicaraguan Catholic leaders with whom I spoke said that Americans should be aware of the role that President Joe Biden has played in exacerbating this crisis. Several Nicaraguan priests said, for instance, that Biden’s failure to strongly condemn Alvarez’s imprisonment convinced the Ortega regime that they had free reign to persecute Christians without fear of reprisal from the United States.
One Nicaraguan priest told me that since he assumed office, Biden has refused to cooperate with the Church on providing humanitarian assistance to families – something which is directly contributing to the illegal immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. In FY2023, more than 139,000 individuals from Nicaragua crossed the border illegally.
“While the Church offers young people and families an alternative to immigration, including material aid in the parish, the [Nicaraguan] government intends to create unceasing pressure on the United States,” he said.
While Nicaragua’s Catholic Church has an interest in creating opportunities for people in Nicaragua and discouraging illegal immigration, the Ortega regime has a vested interest in encouraging more illegal border crossings. As a recently published report from the think tank Inter-American Dialogue shows, Nicaragua’s central bank, controlled by Ortega, received an injection of $4.2 billion in remittances from the United States in 2023.
A senior Catholic layman, who was formerly a professor at a Catholic University closed by Ortega, said that this money is an “incredibly crucial lifeline for Sandinista government, and was a logical outcome of current U.S. policies.” The Ortega government has unsurprisingly actively encouraged the migrant caravans coming to the U.S.
“Why is the United States saving an incompetent and corrupted regime?” he asked, adding that “employment and poverty have been rampant.”
Without a change in leadership in Washington, the future looks rather bleak for Nicaraguan Catholics.
“Before the secret police left my apartment, one of them said something that sent shivers down my spine,” one priest told me. “He said, 2024 will be the final year of your existence; unlike in the 1980s, America will not help you; our friends are now at the steering wheel.”
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
