Religious persecution in Nicaragua

Nicaragua’s government forcefully closed 1,500 churches and nonprofits, many of them with religious affiliations, on Aug. 19. The government notice, published in the state-sponsored La Gaceta newspaper, announced that the religious groups had failed to report their finances for at least one year, some for as long as 35 years. The following Thursday, the government shut down 151 more nongovernmental organizations, including the American Chamber of Commerce.

While the removal of so many groups in one week might be the government’s most explicit harassment of nonprofits in recent years, it follows the Central American country’s pattern of religious repression.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega first came to office during the 1980s, lost the 1990 race, and then was reelected in 2006. As part of his campaign, he promised to uphold “Christianity, socialism, and solidarity.” While his loyalty to socialism has intensified, his commitment to Christianity has become increasingly tenuous. In 2010 and 2014, the Nicaraguan government amended the country’s constitution to allow Ortega to keep running for president. He selected his wife, Rosario Murillo, as his running mate when he ran for—and won—a third consecutive term in 2016.

In April 2018, demonstrators began protesting a social security overhaul and calling for Ortega’s resignation, leading to a wave of violent government crackdowns during which about 300 people were killed, though estimates vary. According to a June report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “the government initially targeted the Catholic Church because it provided sanctuary to demonstrators, and clergy voiced opposition to the government’s human rights abuses.”

According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Nicaragua had 7,227 legally registered nonprofits in 2018. But that year, the Ortega administration shut down over 1,000 nonprofits, hoping to stomp out the anti-government movement. Since then, the government has closed more than 5,000 civil-society organizations, many of them religiously affiliated.

Government officials often accuse civil society groups of crimes they didn’t commit. Police and paramilitary groups survey churches, sometimes posing as laypeople to gather incriminating evidence. The judicial system, under the control of Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front party, then finds the nonprofits guilty of breaking several laws, including cybercrime statutes that prevent the spread of so-called “false news.”

That’s why Bishop Rolando Álvarez received a 26-year prison sentence in February of last year. Álvarez was exiled this past January after officials at the Vatican negotiated for his release.

Government lawyers accused Álvarez of “damaging the Nicaraguan government and society” and spreading “false news” both on social media and in sermons. According to Kristina Hjelkrem, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom International who advocated for Álvarez’s release, the bishop never explicitly denounced the government, either online or on social media.

“He was preaching Scripture,” said Hjelkrem. “He was talking about justice, he was talking about human dignity, and the government just decided that those kinds of speeches should be censored because they did not align with what [it was] doing.”

Government officials have charged many Nicaraguan churches and clergymen with money laundering, imposing complicated financial reporting on churches and accusing them of a lack of transparency. Six former employees of the Catholic charity Caritas, were sentenced for money laundering on Christmas Eve.

The Ortega government has canceled public religious processions, going so far as to ban the country from celebrating Mass on All Souls’ Day last November.

Although Catholics have been a primary target of the crackdowns—the group makes up about 43 percent of the population—Protestants and evangelicals have not escaped persecution. In March, 11 ministry leaders who worked with Mountain Gateway, a Texas-based evangelical ministry with a plant in Nicaragua, were accused of money laundering. The ministry leaders were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and each fined over $80 million, amounting to nearly $1 billion collectively. According to a press release from Mountain Gateway, the ministry leaders watched the trial proceedings from a video livestream since they were not allowed to attend in person.

For the roughly 1,650 nonprofits shut down in August, regrouping will be nearly impossible, since the state said it would seize their property and assets. On Aug. 20, one day after announcing widespread nonprofit shutdowns, the country’s National Assembly decided to remove tax exemption status for those churches and religious organizations which remain in Nicaragua. This means that all donations will be taxed between 10 and 30 percent, roughly the same policy that applies to the economic sector.

ADF International’s Hjelkrem believes the persecution against religious and civil society groups isn’t likely to abate under the current administration. Until the leadership changes, nonprofit leaders will have to be vigilant if they hope to avoid arrest. “For a church to survive, they have to keep a very, very low profile and they cannot preach anything that the government may be mad about,” said Hjelkrem. “They are auto-censoring themselves.”