Police in Nicaragua arrest, jail another Catholic priest
Reuters Nicaraguan police detained another Catholic priest critical of the government, two sources close to the church told Reuters on Monday, making him the latest cleric to be targeted in a deepening crackdown on clergy in the country. Fernando Zamara, a priest who also serves in an administrative role in the northern diocese of Siuna, […]
Nicaragua: Catholic clergy report surveillance, beatings amid crackdown
DAVID ALIRE GARCIA, of Reuters, reports on President Daniel Ortega’s five-year campaign against the Catholic Church…
Nicaraguan Catholic bishop back to jail after talks stall – local media
Reuters Nicaraguan Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez was returned to prison on Wednesday after negotiations between the government and church representatives broke down over the terms of his possible release, according to local news outlet Confidencial. Rolando Alvarez, Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and a critic of the Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, walks at Managua’s […]
Nicaraguan Catholic Bishop Alvarez freed, talks going on – source
Reuters Nicaraguan Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez was released from prison late on Monday, a diplomatic source said, marking a possible turning point in the government’s prolonged crackdown on the Catholic Church. Rolando Alvarez, Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and a critic of the Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, walks at Managua’s Catholic Church where he […]
Nicaraguan Government accuses Catholic Church of money laundering, freezes accounts
Reuters Nicaraguan police said on Saturday they are investigating several dioceses of the Catholic Church for money laundering, a day after local media reported that the bank accounts of parishes in the Central American country had been frozen. The police, loyal to the government of President Daniel Ortega which has clashed fiercely with Nicaragua’s bishops, […]
Nicaragua arrests 40 opposition figures in new round-up of critics
Reuters Forty political opponents of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega have been arrested and charged with crimes including conspiracy and treason in a new round-up of government critics, relatives of five of the detainees said on Thursday. The opposition figures were detained on Wednesday night, taken to the capital Managua to be charged, then transferred back […]
Nicaragua closes Vatican embassy in Managua, Nicaraguan embassy to Vatican – source
Vatican City Reuters Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has ordered the closure of the Vatican Embassy in Managua and that of the Nicaraguan Embassy to the Vatican in Rome, a senior Vatican source said on Sunday. Nicaragua signalled that the move, which came a few days after Pope Francis compared the Nicaraguan government to a dictatorship, […]
Nicaraguan Catholic bishop sentenced to decades in prison, citizenship stripped
Managua, NIcaragua Reuters A Nicaraguan court sentenced Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez to more than 26 years in prison on Friday, a day after the cleric and critic of President Daniel Ortega declined to be expelled to the United States as part of a prisoner release. Alvarez, Bishop of the Matagalpa diocese, was convicted of treason, […]
Over 200 Nicaraguan prisoners, including top Ortega critics, freed and sent to US
Managua, NicaraguaReuters More than 200 political prisoners in Nicaragua were released and flown to the United States on Thursday, including five former presidential hopefuls and other leading critics of President Daniel Ortega, in what Washington described as a “constructive step” toward improving human rights. The mass release “opens the door to further dialogue between the […]
Essay: Nicaragua has kicked out hundreds of NGOs – even cracking down on Catholic groups like nuns from Mother Teresa’s order
KELSEY MARTIN-MORALES and MATTHEW WILSON, of the University of South Carolina, say the situation in Nicaragua is emblemaic of a global trend in which autocrats are targeting NGOs…