CLERGY in Nicaragua are being forced to report to the police weekly, and to seek approval for the content of their services, the charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports.
CSW, which campaigns for religious freedom, describes the restrictions on Christians in the country as “severe”. Public religious activities, such as processions, are banned. Inside churches, all activities are monitored, it says.
Human rights, including religious freedom, have been reported to be deteriorating for years under President Daniel Ortega’s regime. Protests begun by students against the government in 2018 have been systematically and brutally crushed.
The Roman Catholic Church has been increasingly targeted, owing to its support for protesters and its criticism of actions of the regime. Some clergy have been placed under what the government calls “precautionary measures”, and have to report to police weekly, submitting plans of forthcoming services.
Last month, Nicaragua withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council after a UN-commissioned report accused President Ortega’s government of suppressing human rights and religious groups.
One of its authors, the international human-rights lawyer Ariela Peralta, wrote that the Nicaraguan government was “effectively at war with its own people”.
The UN report accuses the Ortega regime, which has been in power since 2007, of having “transformed the country into an authoritarian state where no independent institutions remain”.
Ortega has named his wife, Rosario Murillo, as co-president. She dismissed the UN report as “falsehoods” and “slander”. Two days after its publication, Nicaragua withdrew from the Council.
CSW’s latest report refers to 222 violations of religious freedom in 2024, some affecting thousands of people. Hundreds of civil-society organisations, including those connected to religious groups, have lost their legal status and have been ordered to close. Many Protestant churches had had their status removed, CSW reports, including the Episcopal Church of Nicaragua, part of the Anglican Communion, and the Moravian Church of Nicaragua. Their assets were due to be confiscated.
In 2024, at least 46 religious leaders were detained, including Carmen María Sáenz Martínez and Lesbia del Socorro Gutiérrez Poveda, both of whom worked with the Roman Catholic Matagalpa diocese, which was formerly led by the political prisoner Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, who was forced into exile.
Both women have been held since August; their families have received no news of them.
Alongside Bishop Alvarez, other leaders, including Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega, and many priests, have been forcibly exiled from the country.
The CSW report concludes: “Respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including FoRB, continued to deteriorate drastically in 2024. Instead, the government has continued its campaign to eradicate independent civil society by targeting both individuals and entire faith-based organisations and religious associations.
“Intrusive monitoring, surveillance, and intimidation tactics targeting individuals and groups, including religious groups, is now the norm. It is now government practice to reduce numbers of political prisoners including religious leaders by sending them out of the country. Indeed, in many cases, it appeared that religious leaders may have been detained with the express purpose of then negotiating for their release into forced exile.”
