The global spotlight is on Venezuela these days. But the ecclesial one is looking intensely at Nicaragua, in addition to Venezuela. Omnes has asked several sources for a brief analysis of "the ordeal" that the Nicaraguan people are going through, as Pope Francis pointed out a few days ago.
Two of the three exiled people, living abroad, ask not to give their names. All in off. That's how we do it. Two others from inside the country request the same, but in the end they don't even answer. Related to the Catholic Church, their current rule is silence.
For historical context, you can consult, for example, the following chronologyat least until 2022, and some information by clicking on herefor example. Let's go to the questions and answers.
1) Assessment of the tension between the Nicaraguan government and the Catholic Church.
- Professional exiled in Central America. "The Nicaraguan Catholic Church has historically been the most credible institution in the country. They have been a permanent voice of denunciation of the injustices of the governments, since the times of the dictator Anastasio Somoza, overthrown by the Sandinista revolution of 1979. Then the Catholic Church denounced the injustices of the first Sandinista dictatorship (1979-1990). There, priests and Bishop Pablo Vega were also expelled. It is sadly famous the sabotage made by the Sandinistas to the Mass of Pope John Paul II during his visit to Managua in 1983".
"Since Ortega returned to power in 2007, tensions with the Church escalated until the 2018 protests, when the bishops called for Ortega's resignation and a democratic transition. Ortega crushed the protests by killing more than 300 protesters, imprisoning half a thousand and then shut down all independent media, including those of the Catholic Church."
- Professional exiled in the United States. "To summarize what is happening in Nicaragua is very easy. When we left Nicaragua a few decades ago, in 1979, and moved, there was a Cuban family near where we lived in Miami. And the man of the house would ask us what was happening now in Nicaragua: 'They nationalized the gasoline company,' we told him. And he added: 'Tomorrow, or next week, they will nationalize the banks.. 'And how do you know that,' we asked. 'Because that's exactly what they did in Cuba'.
"What they want to do, and this happens also in developed countries, is to take away initiative, family, education, everything that people have, so that people only trust in what I call the 'government god'. In truth, they replace God with the government, and the Catholic Church is a barrier to achieve their goal."
- Attorney Martha P. Molina. "Before 2018 there was a fictitious bonanza between the Nicaraguan state and the Catholic Church. The dictator Daniel Ortega did not look favorably on some Catholic bishops and they had already murdered a priest whose body was found tortured and burned. After April 2018 the dictatorship's discontent and hatred was uncovered and frontal attacks against the Catholic Church began. The attacks were consequences of the call for dialogue made by the bishops and priests."
"The dictatorship to date has not been able to break the only institution left in Nicaragua that enjoys national and international credibility, the Catholic Church, and that is why it has attacked it in different ways on more than 870 occasions."
- BBC. "Relations between the Vatican and Managua worsened when Ortega accused priests of supporting the 2018 anti-government protests, which he considered a coup attempt led by Washington, and which resulted, according to the United Nations, in more than 300 deaths."
2) Some facts that have contributed to make the relationship between the government and the Church difficult
- Professional exiled in Central America. The Ortega government "outlawed political parties and persecuted all non-governmental organizations, outlawing more than 5,000 of them. In the midst of this illegalization there are Catholic organizations such as Caritas".
"The number of expelled priests represents a quarter of the priests that, until 2018, were officially recognized by the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN), who worked in the archdiocese of Managua and in the eight different dioceses of the country."
- Professional exiled in the United States. "We have supported many organizations of the Catholic Church, and others, and if it had not been for this, a large percentage of the population, and in the most common parts of the country, would not have had access to quality education. I can recognize many health centers run by different orders, that if it were not for them, they would not have been able to maintain themselves".
"We go back to the limit, the truth. If the Catholic Church does all that, it is like a barrier for Ortega and his wife to achieve their task, which is to create the 'god government', to have the minds controlled. Let me give an example. Once when we were bringing more medicines into the country than the government was buying, the Minister of Health told us that he was going to block any further importation of medicines. His basic argument is 'because they make me look bad'. I was in my early 20s, and I didn't understand his response."
- Attorney Molina. "In June 2018, the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua asked President Daniel Ortega to 'formally' accept the proposal to bring forward to March 2019 the general elections, in order to facilitate the national dialogue that seeks a way out of the crisis that has left nearly 220 dead since April 18."
"The homilies and prophetic mission of bishops and priests through pulpits and evangelization projects, which they try to silence completely. The non-submission to Vice President Rosario Murillo. The communist atheism professed by the Ortega-Murillo family".
"And also the immobilization of bank accounts of the entire Catholic Church, among them the priests' retirement fund, with more than 20 years of existence, used for retired and sick priests."
3) Contributions made by the Catholic Church and its members to their country.
- Professional exiled in Central America. "The footprint of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua is immense, with social assistance, Catholic schools and colleges, assistance centers, etc. The poet Rubén Darío is buried in the cathedral of León (the largest and oldest in the country)".
- Professional exiled in the United States. "For years we supported the work of two thousand organizations, mostly related to the Catholic Church, whether they were schools, dispensaries, health centers, which served nuns and priests, and also non-church, local organizations, which we supported, so that they could provide health, education, nutrition, housing, to people living in extreme poverty. We moved millions of dollars in annual support to these organizations.
- Attorney Molina. "The Catholic Church has only done good in Nicaragua, which is a majority Catholic state. All the social projects that the church had through the NPOs, among them Caritas, bring benefits to the most unprotected in those communities where there is no state presence. Today, these people find themselves under precarious conditions of vulnerability and with no one to provide them with care".
4) Do you consider possible (or feasible) any initiative to de-escalate the situation?
- Professional exiled in Central America. "I don't think there is a way to de-escalate relations. In his last public speech, Ortega accused the exiled priests of being 'terrorists'. See here.
- Professional exiled in the United States. He makes a preamble on economics. "The economy in the country is interesting. Because Daniel Ortega and his family, and those close to him, own a high percentage of the corporations in the country. And it is in their interest to keep the economy going. There is a difference between Cuba and Nicaragua. They are not touching private enterprise in Nicaragua. They are touching the businessmen who open their mouths against the government, because they are getting in the way and in their clan. The Ortegas control the majority of the economy and businesses in the country, and their interest is not to see the speed of the engine reduced, because it would impact them".
"From the point of view of the Church, it is very difficult, because in the end what they want to create is 'little lambs', that nobody speaks, nobody sees, nobody hears, nobody says anything against the government, because it is the way in which the government maintains itself. The priests or the bishops who were more eloquent about the situation, have been silenced or removed. The priests are afraid. The situation is quite difficult because the government is quickly attacking anyone who opens his mouth, and especially the leaders of the Church, which is also happening with the evangelical leaders. The Church is a barrier in their plan".
- Attorney Molina. "Pope Francis and Vatican policy will always call for dialogue and understanding between the parties. And that is what the Church has been doing since the Sandinista dictatorship began with the violation of the human rights of all Nicaraguans. What happens is that even if the Catholic Church calls for dialogue, the dictatorship will always act in the opposite way".
"The rapprochement that the Vatican has rarely had with the Ortega dictatorship is only for the Ortegas to impose their decisions and agreements, it is not a dialogue in which both parties win."
"I consider that while the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship is in power, there is no peaceful mechanism to ease the persecution against the Catholic Church. Not even the silence that we have seen in recent months from priests and bishops has managed to stop the persecution".
5. Any additional considerations?
- Professional exiled in the United States. "I think what numerous priests are doing is focusing a lot on the power of prayer, and that's the first thing. They don't say anything that could be a certain risk, and they pray.".
"I don't think Daniel Ortega will be allowed to leave power easily. On the economic side, as has already been mentioned, he controls a large percentage of the country's economy; in geopolitics, we have talked about Cuba. And close to where we lived, where we grew up, in Managua, there was a Russian security and intelligence campus, to cite an example. Nicaragua is, geographically, a key country".
"Nicaragua has been a country that has suffered a lot, but also a country with people with a lot of faith. And it has these difficult cycles, but in the end it comes out ahead. That is what is going to happen. There will be some miracle, somehow, because the people are good. But I see it more in the long term than in the short term, because there are too many pressures."
