Nicaragua: An anti-Christian dictatorship

This translation is beeing reviewed.

Since 2018, President Daniel Ortega has established an increasingly intractable repressive regime. Political opponents of the Sandinista government are silenced, thrown into prison or deported, stripped of their nationality, while hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans have fled the country.

Catholics, and the clergy in particular, have become prime targets of the regime.

The European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ), which has been working with international institutions for over 25 years to defend and promote religious freedom worldwide, today published a report denouncing the persecution of Christians in Nicaragua.

Read the Report

This new report objectively exposes this persecution, described as a “crime against humanity” by United Nations experts.

A cultural and spiritual war against Christians

More than 870 attacks against the Catholic Church have been recorded since 2018. These actions include physical assaults, forced closures of places of worship, arbitrary detentions of clergy and confiscations of religious property.

The case of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa, illustrates the regime's violence. Imprisoned in August 2022, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison after refusing exile. Released in January 2024, he was stripped of his nationality and deported to the Vatican, after 17 months in detention. He remains a figure of Christian resistance to oppression. More than 245 members of the clergy have already been exiled, while others are arbitrarily detained in prisons, depriving the faithful of their pastors.

In addition to physical violence, Ortega's regime is waging a cultural and spiritual war.

In August 2023, the Jesuit-run University of Central America was confiscated by the government, as was the Santa María de la Paz monastery. Religious events, such as Holy Week processions, were massively banned.

Between 2022 and 2024, over 5,000 processions were cancelled by the authorities, marking the government's determination to erase Christian traditions from the national landscape. The sick and dying are not spared: priests are forbidden to administer the sacraments in hospitals.

International charities such as Caritas International, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Christian Aid and Compassion International have been dissolved and banned by the government, depriving Nicaraguans of the humanitarian aid they used to provide.

Press freedom has not been left out: at least 54 media outlets, including 22 Christian media outlets, have been censored, and some 280 journalists are currently in exile, etc.

Urgent action in support of Nicaragua's persecuted Christians

This persecution is part of a propaganda strategy carefully orchestrated by the Ortega regime to weaken the Church and damage its reputation. The authorities multiply speeches describing priests and bishops as “putschists” or enemies of the state, to present the Church as a threat to national security. These accusations are accompanied by public defamation campaigns, creating a climate of hatred.

The ECLJ report highlights the relative inaction of the international community in the face of this crisis. Although targeted sanctions have been imposed by the United States and the European Union, their impact remains limited. Meanwhile, Nicaragua is strengthening its alliances with Russia and China, circumventing Western pressure while intensifying its internal repression. At the same time, Nicaragua is exerting migratory pressure on the United States, facilitating the transit of migrants in return for the payment of taxes that enrich the regime.

We cannot remain silent in the face of this persecution of Christians by an increasingly dictatorial regime. We must publicize and denounce these violations, and then take action with international bodies to ensure that the regime in Nicaragua feels the international pressure. This is what ECLJ is committed to doing today.

Effective sanctions must be imposed, exiles must be offered greater protection and those responsible for these crimes must be prosecuted. It is also essential to provide direct humanitarian support to Christian communities, who embody courageous resistance in the face of dictatorship and persecution.

We must also pray. Pray for the Church, which suffers so much persecution around the world, when all it wants is to love God and its neighbor.

We cannot resign ourselves to so much persecution.

We therefore invite you to read and share this report, and to sign our petition against the persecution of Christians to support our institutional action.

You can also share, relay and react to the numerous reports on this persecution that we will be publishing on social networks. In this way, you'll be helping to make the persecution of Nicaraguan Christians more widely known.

Thank you for your support.