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Bad news has been the norm for Catholics in Nicaragua, where clergy and church groups have been frequent targets of a wide-ranging crackdown for years. But on Jan. 14, 2024, they received a happy surprise: The government unexpectedly released two bishops, 15 priests and two seminary students from prison and expelled them\u00a0to the Vatican.<\/p>\n
Those released included Bishop Rolando \u00c1lvarez, a high-profile political prisoner who was detained in 2022 for criticizing the government and then sentenced to 26 years in prison for alleged treason.<\/p>\n
They also included\u00a0priests detained by\u00a0President Daniel Ortega’s government in late December 2023 for expressing solidarity\u00a0with \u00c1lvarez and other political prisoners. Days later, Pope Francis criticized the regime\u00a0in his New Year’s message and then called for\u00a0“respectful diplomatic dialogue.”<\/p>\n
Nearly six years after mass protests erupted\u00a0against Ortega and then were brutally repressed, these prisoner releases offer some hope to Nicaragua’s opposition. As\u00a0my research<\/a>\u00a0has shown<\/a>, however, the Ortega regime is unrelenting\u00a0in trying to retain power, which suggests this is not necessarily a turning point. In fact, the government reportedly took yet another priest into custody\u00a0on Jan. 16.<\/p>\n Ortega first led Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, after his left-wing revolutionary organization, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN, spearheaded the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In the 1980s, the FSLN clashed with the Vatican\u00a0and church hierarchy over the group’s socialist politics, even as many poorer Nicaraguan Catholics embraced them.<\/p>\n When Ortega took office again in 2007, however, he did so with the blessing of Christian leaders. During the 2006 elections, he had turned to alliances with Catholic\u00a0and Protestant elites\u00a0to return to power\u00a0in exchange for adopting\u00a0conservative social policies like banning abortion.<\/p>\n Over the next decade, Ortega remained popular, presiding over economic growth in collaboration with business leaders\u00a0and developing new public infrastructure and services.<\/p>\n Yet he and the FSLN party he controlled\u00a0were also consolidating power\u00a0and governing in an increasingly authoritarian\u00a0manner. Ortega won reelection in 2011\u00a0and then retained power in fraudulent elections\u00a0in 2016. Opposition candidates were disqualified, and Ortega’s running mate was his wife, Rosario Murillo.<\/p>\n Unexpectedly, Ortega’s popularity and his relationship with the church came crashing down in April 2018, when the government announced cutbacks in social security benefits for retirees. Nicaraguans from all backgrounds\u00a0took to the streets, and Ortega and Murillo responded with a furious crackdown, unleashing police and pro-government paramilitaries armed with military-grade weapons.<\/p>\n Cathedrals and churches tried to\u00a0offer refuge\u00a0to protesters, but over 300 people were killed. Church leaders facilitated a national dialogue between the government and an opposition coalition, but withdrew\u00a0as repression continued.<\/p>\n When popular Catholic leaders criticized violence\u00a0against protesters, the regime began viewing the church as a rival\u00a0threatening Ortega’s waning legitimacy. Police, paramilitaries and FSLN supporters started harassing and attacking\u00a0clergy and Catholic institutions.<\/p>\n In 2019, the pope recalled Silvio B\u00e1ez, the auxiliary bishop of Managua and a prominent critic of Ortega, from Nicaragua. Yet other bishops and priests still found themselves in the regime’s crosshairs.<\/p>\n Some fled into exile\u00a0or were blocked from entering\u00a0Nicaragua if they traveled abroad. Others who stayed were kept under surveillance. Priests who expressed support for political prisoners or continued to criticize the regime, even in vague terms, could be arrested or beaten.<\/p>\n The government expelled 12 formerly detained priests to the Vatican in October 2023\u00a0after what the regime called “fruitful conversations.” But \u00c1lvarez, the highest-profile political prisoner, was still held by the government and was stripped of his citizenship after refusing to go into exile\u00a0in February 2023.<\/p>\n Attacks on the church are a symptom\u00a0of the Ortega regime’s absolute intolerance for dissent.<\/p>\n With over 3,000 nongovernmental organizations\u00a0shut down\u00a0since 2018, the church has become Nicaragua’s only major nonstate institution\u00a0with nationwide reach.<\/p>\n In a country where over 40% of the people\u00a0identify as Catholic, many normally turn to the church in times of need. Suppressing Catholic institutions means Nicaraguans must turn to the state for aid, which monitors citizens\u00a0and has been accused of denying\u00a0services for perceived disloyalty.<\/p>\n At least 27\u00a0Catholic and secular universities\u00a0have also been closed or seized\u00a0by the government, as have more than 50\u00a0media outlets.<\/p>\n The government’s decision to expel clergy on Jan. 14 is also in line with its tendency to either block opponents’ reentry\u00a0into Nicaragua or force them into exile. In many cases, Nicaragua has then revoked critics’ citizenship, as when it expelled 222 political prisoners in February 2023\u00a0to the United States.<\/p>\n When imprisonment or threats have not shaken critics’ resolve, Ortega and Murillo appear to have decided that keeping them abroad is best. Not only does this reduce the risks of anti-regime action in Nicaragua, but it may diminish international scrutiny of political prisoners’ mistreatment.<\/p>\n Since 2018, repression in Nicaragua has come in waves, with the brutal violence that repressed the protests shifting toward an environment\u00a0of constant surveillance, legal actions against independent institutions and opponents, and periodic arrests. Moments of seeming calm, however, have often been followed by harsh crackdowns, such as a slew of arrests\u00a0ahead of the 2021 elections.<\/p>\n Even as repression has mounted, the Vatican has been cautious\u00a0about criticizing Ortega and Murillo, and some Nicaraguans and Catholics abroad\u00a0have urged the pope to do more. Yet the Vatican’s restraint has not appeared to decrease threats against clergy\u00a0or limits on activities like religious processions.<\/p>\n In January 2024, however, Francis pointedly called attention to the crisis\u00a0during two speeches, days after a dozen priests\u00a0were arrested. One week later came the release of \u00c1lvarez and his colleagues \u2013 free to leave Nicaragua, but not to come back.<\/p>\nWhy target the church?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Broader patterns of repression<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Cautious criticism<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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