The Nicaraguan government has extinguished the legal status of more than 25 Catholic organisations, including religious orders such as the Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians, another diocesan Caritas chapter, and lay Catholic groups, as part of an attack on civil society with the closure of 1,500 nongovernmental organisations.
The closures, announced 19 August by the Interior Ministry, targeted religious and civic groups ranging from Protestant churches to the Rotary club to agricultural producer associations and even the national chess federation.
A source familiar with Nicaragua described the 19 August actions as “an extraordinary effort by the Nicaraguan State to crush nongovernmental organisations across Nicaraguan society.”
The attack from the increasingly totalitarian regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, further eliminated civic spaces beyond their control, while further attacking freedom of worship.
The regime has closed at least 5,000 nongovernmental organisations and silenced independent media since 2018, when the protesters took to the streets to demand the president’s ouster—only to be met with violence from police and paramilitaries.
Martha Patricia Molina, an exiled lawyer who tracks aggressions against the Nicaraguan Catholic Church, has counted 9,688 attempts at thwarting processions and religious activities since April 2018.
Her latest report on church persecution was released 15 August and documented 143 clergy—including a nuncio, three bishops, 136 priests and three deacons—11 seminarians and 91 nuns unable to work in Nicaragua, having fled the country, being forcibly exiled or simply denied re-entry after traveling abroad.
The exiled priests and bishops were sent to either in the United States or the Vatican.