How can the world stand by and watch the purge of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua?
On 7 November 2021, Nicaragua held another fraudulent presidential election, which the European Union declared an “electoral farce”.
The regime of Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, arbitrarily incarcerated seven presidential pre-candidates, and approximately 40 opposition leaders, students, rural leaders, journalists, human rights defenders, and business representatives, effectively eliminating all credible electoral competition.
The duo had consolidated their absolute power – eviscerating all democratic institutions. The consequences have been devastating.
A report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) states that a police state has been established through repression, corruption, electoral fraud, and structural impunity designed by the government to indefinitely perpetuate its power and maintain its privileges and immunities.
The Ortega-Murillo regime has been perpetrating crimes against humanity. The Catholic Church is the institution which, since 2018, has borne the brunt of their attacks. Just like the Castro regime did in Cuba during the 1960s, Nicaragua has experienced harsh restrictions on religious freedom, practices, and church processions. Catholic education has been forbidden and anyone who is perceived as a political or religious enemy is targeted.
The Ortega-Murillo regime’s “purge” of the Catholic Church has included abducting, imprisoning and, seminarians, and members of religious congregations on trumped-up charges of plotting a coup. Many have been banished from Nicaragua, with such repressive tactics being likened to Joseph Stalin’s purge of religious institutions in the Soviet Union.
