Daniel Ortega’s Crusade against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua
A war is being waged against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
While not its official religion, Nicaragua is a predominantly Catholic country, in which the church has considerable political sway – clergy who attend state functions are often consulted for their opinions on state matters. Seeing the leadership of the Catholic Church as a potential threat to his regime, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has begun to take measures against them, such as the mass imprisonment of Catholic leaders based on loose accusations of conspiracy.
As of 2007, Daniel Ortega has maintained his presidency through rigged elections and the elimination of term limits. He is publicly considered to be a dictator due to his suppression of political opposition, crackdowns on student protest movements, and restrictions of freedom of the press, among other human rights abuses.
Since 2018, approximately 110 priests have been exiled from Nicaragua, comprising about 15 percent of the total Nicaraguan clergy. Among these are members of the clergy such as Bishop Rolando José Álvarez, who was recently released from detainment on January 14, 2024.
Roughly two years prior, Bishop Álvarez was placed under house arrest after criticizing the government for its recent censorship of Catholic radio along with its violent response to protests in 2018. He was imprisoned in December 2022 on charges of conspiracy and spreading disinformation.
In February 2023, 222 political prisoners––including student protesters, political opponents, priests, and outspoken critics––were exiled to the United States. The Nicaraguan government claimed that Bishop Álvarez was given the choice to join them, but refused and chose to remain in prison. However, according to The Pillar, this chance for exile was presented in an unclear, potentially incriminating fashion. Álvarez was reportedly presented with a blank sheet of paper to sign, which he feared might be used as a confession to being part of an alleged coup d’etat.
Among those exiled in February, some Nicaraguan priests testified as to being threatened so that they would admit Álvarez was part of a coup orchestrated by foreign influence, or that his homilies were designed to spark an uprising. Bishop Álvarez, who appeared to be in declining health at the time, was thus unable to escape with the others. Following the prisoner release, the 58-year old bishop was charged with treason before being stripped of Nicaraguan citizenship and sentenced to 26 years in prison.
After diplomatic efforts between the Vatican and the Nicaraguan government, Álvarez was exiled to Vatican City in January. He was joined by 18 other priests.
The Pope, the U.S. government, and various human rights groups have publicly condemned Ortega’s crackdown on the Catholic Church. However, Ortega asserts that Catholic leaders such as Bishop Álvarez are funded by the U.S. as part of an organized effort to overthrow his regime. A self-proclaimed Catholic himself, Ortega criticized the Catholic Church for being a “dictatorship” in 2022, claiming that religious leaders such as bishops are “coup plotters” working for the interests of the U.S. government.
This narrative originated in 2018, when a series of protests broke out stemming from discontent about the regime’s imposition of unfavorable social security reforms. Despite the original intent behind the protests, the demonstrations became part of a wider protest against the government, drawing parallels between the Ortega administration and the Somoza dictatorship with statements such as “Daniel y Somoza son la misma cosa,” meaning “Somoza and Ortega are the same thing.”
The Somoza family was a dynasty that controlled the politics of Nicaragua for over 40 years. Anastasio Somoza Debayle was particularly infamous and detested by the Nicaraguan people for his corrupt practices, human rights abuses, and self-indulgent totalitarian rule. Like Ortega, Somoza eliminated presidential term limits to stay in power. Somoza was notably backed by the United States during the Cold War era, as he was fiercely anti-communist, which shows some of the early roots of Ortega’s distrust of the United States. As a Sandinista, Daniel Ortega was a communist guerilla leader who fought to overthrow the Somoza regime under Anastasio Somoza Debayle.
In 2018, after being compared to Somoza by protesters, Ortega ordered the demonstrations to be stopped. Paramilitary and police forces brutally quelled the protests, resulting in over 300 deaths. This response shocked the leaders of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church––including Bishop Álvarez–––who vehemently voiced their support for the protesters.
After being compared to the dictator he had once fought to overthrow and condemned by one of the most respected voices of the Nicaraguan people, Ortega began using the narrative that the Catholic Church was planning a coup against his rule. This was aided by Ortega’s growing control of the media, which he used as a vessel to carry out this message.
As for Ortega’s assertion that this Catholic coup is being assisted by the United States in particular, that claim has roots in the Nicaraguan Civil War, which followed the Sandinista rise to power in 1979. After the Sandinistas replaced the Somoza dictatorship with their communist government, a counterrevolutionary faction known as the Contras arose in opposition to the Sandinistas, and civil war ensued; a bloody conflict which resulted in over 30,000 deaths and grave human rights violations on both sides. While the Sandinistas allied themselves with communist powers such as Cuba and the USSR, the Contras were secretly aided by the United States––a clandestine operation which culminated in a political scandal known as the Iran-Contra Affair. Including the U.S. in his current narrative serves to protect Ortega’s image by redirecting the public’s attention to an external enemy. By doing so, it enables Ortega to paint himself as the Sandinista guerilla he once was, fighting for the Nicaraguan people in a new civil war. However, despite this image, his recent actions paint him more in the light of the dictator his revolution was fought to remove.
As for the involvement of the Catholic Church, Catholics were fighting on both sides of the civil war. However, higher-ranking Catholic officials, such as bishops, supported the Contra, as they feared Sandinista rule would result in the loss of their status and privileges under traditional Nicaraguan society. This may provide some insight as to why Daniel Ortega’s criticisms against the Catholic Church are typically geared towards religious leaders, as opposed to targeting ordinary citizens who are Catholic. However, Catholicism’s preeminence in Nicaragua makes waging an anti-Catholic war unfeasible—especially as Ortega is Catholic himself. Furthermore, there’s no reason for Ortega to imprison a common citizen, regardless of their religion, so long as they support his regime since they are not a direct threat to his regime in the way that a religious leader might be if they did what he was accusing them of.
It is uncertain whether Daniel Ortega genuinely believes a coup is being orchestrated against him, or whether his narrative is only part of a rhetoric designed to justify his actions in removing those he perceives to be a threat. However, Ortega’s crusade against the Catholic Church is likely to continue. Whether this war will turn out in the favor of the former revolutionary, or if he will meet the same fate as Somoza, only time will tell.