Nicaragua: Churches and Faith Groups Targeted

Recently, the Nicaraguan government cancelled the legal status of 1,500 nonprofit organisations — many of them evangelical religious groups — in a continued authoritarian effort to quash people and institutions unaligned to the government. 

More than 5,000 nonprofit organisations, including church groups, have been shut down in Nicaragua since 2018. The recent sweep of 1,500 civic and religious groups was by far the largest in a single day.  

The decision was notable. Up until then, President Daniel Ortega’s government primarily targeted the Roman Catholic Church, particularly in regions where high-profile bishops and priests have spoken out against human rights abuses.  
 

Churches Targeted for Elimination

Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who tracks attacks against churches and clergy, believes the decision to eliminate hundreds of evangelical churches reflects a growing effort to silence religious leaders and to close off any independent organisations that are not affiliated with the government.

   “All of their properties are going to be confiscated,” says Ms. Molina, who fled Nicaragua in 2021 and now lives in Texas. “This is an attack against religious freedom.”  

Nicaragua’s president and his wife have pushed an increasingly autocratic regime that has seen them control virtually all government institutions, including country legislation, courts, and elections.  

In 2018, hundreds of thousands of people throughout Nicaragua protested cuts to social security and eroding democracy in a quest to topple the government. The presidential couple responded with a tough crackdown. Hundreds were killed, imprisoned, or forced out of the country.  

According to a recent report released by Ms. Molina, nearly 250 priests, nuns, bishops and other members of the Catholic church have been forced out of the country since the 2018 protests. Some fled, but three bishops and 136 priests were expelled.  

“The region of Matagalpa traditionally had around 71 priests but now just 13 remain,” Ms. Molina shares.  

The Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior closed churches last month, saying they had failed to meet their legal obligations to report their finances, according to a notice published in the Nicaraguan government’s legal register.  

The notice listed the 1,500 organisations, which included hundreds of small faith groups, many of them affiliated with Pentecostal and Baptist churches.  

“One of the government’s biggest fears is that through religious leaders, the people of Nicaragua can have change. They are trying to avoid that at all costs,” shares Félix Navarrete, a Nicaraguan lawyer and Catholic Church activist who fled shortly after the 2018 uprising.