Daniel Ortega tightens his iron fist against the Catholic Church

Neither Christmas Eve, nor New Year's, nor clemency nor forgiveness. Daniel Ortega has taken advantage of Christmas to deepen his attack against the Catholic Church, while imposing the reactivation of the much feared Ministry of the Interior, which remembers the worst years of the civil war of the last century.. In the last few hours, its police officers arrested five priests, including Marcos Díaz, vicar of the Diocese of León, in the north of the country.. “I am outraged by the unjust kidnapping of three beloved priests of Managua by the criminal Sandinista dictatorship: Father Pablo Villafranca, Monsignor Carlos Avilés and Father Héctor Treminio, pastors and prophets. “I ask God to protect them and to be released immediately!” protested Silvio José Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua, from exile.

In this way, there are a dozen priests imprisoned at the end of the year, with bishops Rolando Álvarez (the rebel bishop of Matagalpa) and Isidoro del Carmen Mora, leading the Diocese of Siuna until he was kidnapped days ago by a group of police and paramilitary. Regarding the latter, there is no formal accusation nor is his whereabouts known, although the reason for his arrest is known: hours before he prayed for Rolando Álvarez, the Nicaraguan Mandela, sentenced to 26 years in prison for undermining national integrity.

“Daniel Ortega knows that there will be no repercussions, they feel strong because the Nicaraguan Army, the National Police, paramilitary groups, the Citizen Power councils and now the newly created and fearsome Ministry of the Interior support them,” he said for EL MUNDO. the religious expert Martha Patricia Molina.

According to the statistics Molina manages, throughout this year the Catholic Church has suffered 294 attacks out of a total of 760 attacks since the popular rebellion against the dictatorship began in 2018.. Bishops and priests not only led the protests, they also protected hundreds of young people fighting in the streets.

There are 176 religious who can no longer exercise their ministry in Nicaragua, either because they were exiled, expelled or because the Sandinismo does not allow their return to the country.. Among them, 83 priests and 80 nuns. Almost 3,700 processions were banned in Nicaragua by the authorities.

Daniel Ortega's iron fist sets no limits when it comes to persecuting and strangling Catholics, even pushing for the creation of a church in his image and likeness and kneeling before his power.. For now, the Vatican remains firm and has not ordered the replacement of the imprisoned bishops.

The last attack to close the year is also accompanied by the restoration of the Ministry of the Interior, a commitment by Ortega to return to the past. “Here we had two solid forces for the triumph of the revolution, the Army and the Ministry of the Interior, with which we managed to defeat the armed counterrevolution, financed and trained by the United States,” stressed the Sandinista leader, who was proud of this return “to the roots of Sandinismo”.

At the head of the Stanilist super-ministry was the famous commander Tomás Borge, one of the founders of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).. Among the “enemies of the revolution” that Borge viciously persecuted were also Catholic priests.

Despite the exile of more than 200 political prisoners this year, who were joined by a dozen Catholic priests weeks ago, the number of political prisoners has not stopped growing. Currently, it is believed that the barrier of 100 prisoners has once again been surpassed.

“It is one more step towards the dark night, with which it seeks to impose the State-Party-Army model of the Sandinismo of the 80s, to revive the political-partisan identity of the police. A worrying retreat towards a police state that in fact began with Ortega's return to power in 2007,” said former presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga, exiled in February of this year.

What is the difference between the current Ministry of the Interior compared to the new one of the Interior? “This is a creation of the totalitarian governments of Eastern Europe, repressive organs to repress and subjugate the popular will, individual thought and democratic ideas in a society subjected, enslaved and dominated by a group of criminals in political power,” Molina added.