Nicaragua prosecutes missionaries, pastors for organized crime

As of Wednesday, the Nicaraguan government was detaining three American missionaries and 11 Nicaraguan pastors in prison, according to the missions organization Mountain Gateway. All of them face allegations of money laundering and organized crime, charges the ministry denies. Mountain Gateway says the Nicaraguan government approved of all the funding it brought into the country, as well as of the ministry’s evangelism campaigns that took place in the country over the past year. The Nicaraguan government has said it believes nine of the pastors were innocent but were under the control of the two remaining pastors and the three missionaries, according to Mountain Gateway. But the government is still detaining those nine pastors and has done so for more than a month.

Has this sort of thing happened before? Nada Al-Nashif, the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, reported in December that Nicaragua’s government had persistently violated the human rights and religious freedoms of its citizens since at least 2018.

How is the government abridging religious freedom? President Daniel Ortega’s government last August banned the Catholic Jesuit order from Nicaragua, closing down its institutions in the country. It has also recently revoked the religious licenses of several religious groups of Catholic and Evangelical theological backgrounds. Last year, after negotiations between the Catholic Church and the government, the administration agreed to release 12 Catholic priests who were being held in custody.

What sort of human rights violations are activists alleging? The United Nations Office of the Commissioner of Human Rights says Nicaragua has arbitrarily detained political dissidents. Al-Nashif cited an instance in April 2022 where authorities arrested a woman who printed the slogan “Viva Nicaragua libre”—“long live Nicaraguan freedom”—and detained her for months without allowing family visits. The United Nations says the country has also refused to take in some individuals it perceives as political dissidents, a policy which has resulted in authorities separating children from their families.

What does this Nicaraguan government have to say about all this? President Daniel Ortega’s government has denied allegations brought in a 2018 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report. The IACHR reported last year that those human rights violations have not been punished. Ortega accuses religious groups, specifically the Catholic church, of aiding protesters in 2018 anti-government demonstrations, which he considered to be a coup attempt.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard and Myrna Brown’s discussion on The World and Everything in It podcast with Kristina Hjelkrem, legal counsel for Latin America with Alliance Defending Freedom.