‘We Were Accused of Organized Crime’: Christians Describe Persecution in Communist Nicaragua

Nicaraguan Catholics persecuted by the communist Sandinista regime recounted to Congress on Thursday their experiences of being arrested, brutalized, and repressed by dictator Daniel Ortega.

The witnesses, who remained anonymous, described being arrested and interrogated, pressured to admit to being part of an “organized crime” syndicate simply for being Catholic. The vast majority of Nicaraguans, more than 80 percent, identify as Christian, and about half of the country’s population is Catholic.

“We were accused of being members of an organized crime gang and that the leaders were the bishops, and above all they said Rolando [Álvarez]. I was accused of undermining the dignity of the state and of Nicaragua, of spreading false news,” one of the witnesses said.

Another one of the witnesses recounted the harrowing tale of how Nicaraguan police forces kidnapped him/her at late hours:

I was kidnapped by the National Police of Nicaragua; I say kidnapped, because that day, at 3:00 a.m., a group of riot police violently entered the building of the Episcopal Curia and without presenting any arrest warrant, they took us out of the rooms and placed us in the conference room of the Curia. There were 5 priests, among them the Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Alvarez Lagos, a deacon, two seminarians and a layman, a total of 9 people who had been locked up for 15 Days.

The hearing hosting the victims of the Ortega regime took place before the Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations as part of an “urgent appeal” directed to the Ortega regime for the liberation of the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, whom Ortega has maintained as a political prisoner since August 2022.

Álvarez, an outspoken critic of the ruling Sandinista regime, was arrested in August 2022 alongside seven other members of the Catholic Church after Nicaraguan police authorities carried out a two-week-long raid on the priest’s house. The raid was conducted shortly after Rosario Murillo, dictator Ortega’s wife, accused Álvarez of having committed “sins against spirituality.”

The priest was sentenced to 26 years in prison for “treason” in February and was stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship, rendering him a stateless person. Rendering someone a stateless person is forbidden under the United Nations’ 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which prohibits governments from depriving citizens of their nationalities in cases where it would leave a person stateless.

Álvarez is the first member of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church arrested since Ortega returned to power in 2007. The Sandinista regime has maintained a fierce persecution campaign against the Nicaraguan Catholic Church since 2018 as punishment for the Church’s support of pro-democracy dissidents during that year’s wave of protests against the ruling regime.

Another wave of repression intensified in 2022 after Ortega declared a “war” against the Vatican. The Ortega regime has banned Catholic processions, frozen the Church’s bank assets, forcefully shut down Catholic media and universities, and exiled several members of the Church.

In his opening remarks at the hearing, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) expressed the subcommittee’s concern for Bishop Álvarez’s welfare and health after the Ortega regime released photos and videos of the priest looking visibly thin.

Rep. Smith appealed to Ortega to release Álvarez from prison and requested the bishop be allowed to go to the United States, the Vatican, or somewhere else where he can “again serve the people, preach the Good News of the Gospel, and care for the weakest and most vulnerable.”

The first witness, identified as “Prisoner of conscience Number 1,” was described as a “Nicaraguan national, a member of the Catholic Church, who has been criminally convicted by the regime and living in exile.”

In his/her testimony, the witness stated that he/she:

…was not shown a court order, there was no prior investigation, everything was arbitrary and I was even arrested in the street by two members of the police, and six members of the security troops, who accompanied me to the police unit where I was later transferred to the El Chipote prison.

The witness recounted how he/she was interrogated and accused of hate speech and organizing an uprising and was asked if he/she “was following orders from Monsignor Rolando [Álvarez].”

“One of the prison commissioners asked me in one of the interviews, with whom else do they meet and how do they do it? Should I give them names of priests, lay people and the positions they had in the organization?” the person recalled. “They always addressed the Monsignor as if he were the thinking head and the organizer of the failed coup d’état and of wanting to organize a new coup.”

The second witness, identified as “Prisoner of conscience Number 2,” was also described as a “Nicaraguan national, a member of the Catholic Church, who has been criminally convicted by the regime and living in exile.” The witness stated he/she was part of the group of 222 dissidents banished by Ortega to the United States in February.

The second witness said Bishop Álvarez had come to the defense of the demonstrators during the 2018 protests, offering churches as shelters for people fleeing repression and for those wounded by the Ortega regime’s police.

The witness recounted how he/she was transferred to the “Nuevo Chipote” prison, stripped naked, and forced to wear uniforms before being confined to a cell.

“That same day the interrogations began, there were more than 30 interrogations, which could take place at any time of the day, even in the early hours of the morning,” the person detailed, continuing:

They blackmailed me and threatened the lives of my relatives, because they wanted me to declare that the Bishop was a member of an organization that wanted to promote a coup d’état against Daniel Ortega and that he received money from the U.S. government and the European Union.

The witness also described a show trial occurring as the interrogations transpired:

While the interrogations were taking place, the trial against the group that was in the Episcopal Curia was also taking place. The trial from the beginning was full of irregularities, illegalities and vices, the Prosecutor’s Office, the police and the judges colluded so that in the end the accusation was practically the same for the majority of the 222, including the priests and the bishop. In the same way, once the sentence was pronounced, we were accused of “treason” and all our civil rights were taken away to the point of not even presenting us at the Civil Registry office.

The third witness, identified as “Parent of Prisoner of Conscience,” was described as a “Nicaraguan national, a member of the Catholic Church, and a relative of a prisoner of conscience in Nicaragua.”

The witness stated that his/her life changed when he/she joined the 2018 protests with family:

Since that day we received threats, persecution and continuous siege by the police, Sandinista militants and paramilitary groups. We participated in different marches, civic sit-ins and witnessed brutal attacks by the Sandinista police against students and civil society.

The witness described how one of his/her sons was kidnapped by Nicaraguan paramilitary forces in 2018.

“The same day of his kidnapping my son was transferred to the torture prison El Chipote, the mothers remained outside the prison day and night, accompanied by several priests,” the witness observed. “We did not know if our sons were alive or dead, it was until Bishop Rolando José Álvarez arrived at El Chipote and asked to see the kidnapped young men, until that moment I knew that my son was alive.”

“Bishop Rolando Alvarez together with all the clergy of the Diocese of Matagalpa, celebrated a Mass outside the Chipote for the Freedom of the Kidnapped and for the Peace of Nicaragua,” the witness continued.

The third witness concluded his/her statement by saying he/she had fled from Nicaragua in 2018 after having received a phone call that informed him/her that the government had issued a warrant for his/her arrest.

All three witnesses hope their testimonies can serve to help free Bishop Álvarez.

Deborah Ulmmer, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the National Democratic Institute, delivered a testimony to the subcommittee in which she noted the current state of civil and political rights in Nicaragua, noting that ultimately, the choices offered by the Ortega regime “are simple: silence, prison or forced exile.”

During her testimony, Ulmmer stressed Nicaragua’s growing partnership with China and Russia. Ulmmer stated the Ortega regime has signed several trade agreements with China after breaking off relations with Taiwan in 2021. Managua has also maintained military cooperation with Russia that has allowed the Nicaraguan police to receive Russian weaponry, some of which was used against civilians during the 2018 protests.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.