The Nicaraguan government recently shut down more than 1,500 nonprofits 鈥� doing humanitarian work in a country long mired in political violence, economic upheaval and social strife.
The August 2024 closures were the latest in a long-running crackdown on civil society, including religious groups 鈥� some of the last influential, independent organizations in the country. That same month, the government . Over the past few years, many have been closed or had .
, I have worked with Central American scholars to in Central America, including Nicaragua. Several hundred Catholic figures have been detained in an ongoing crackdown under President Daniel Ortega, now 78, who leads .
Sweeping suppression
Ortega鈥檚 FSLN party, as it is known in Spanish, is the authoritarian remnant of the group that led a broad national movement against Anastasio Somoza Debayle鈥檚 dictatorship in the 1970s. After , Ortega and the Sandinistas governed until losing the 1990 election.
READ MORE: Tren de Aragua gang started in Venezuela's prisons and now spreads fear in the U.S.
Since Ortega returned to power in the 2006 elections, moderates have fled the FSLN, which since then has used for political and social control. In 2013, the National Assembly set by the Nicaraguan constitution.
In April 2018, Ortega鈥檚 regime began . Since then, hundreds of citizens 鈥� religious leaders, university students, academics, journalists and doctors 鈥� have , gone into hiding or .
Ortega鈥檚 crackdown has been broad. had and funding cut, and some have been shut down as the government . have been shuttered, and international aid organizations .
Paramilitary police officers and prison guards have been accused of engaging in . Meanwhile, a are fleeing the country.
Parishioners attend Mass at St. Agatha Catholic Church in Miami, which has become the spiritual home of the growing Nicaraguan diaspora.
Silencing churches
Among in Nicaragua between 2018 and 2024 are Catholic, evangelical Christian and historical Protestant organizations, as well as secular humanitarian ones. Of those, were shuttered in August 2024, with government officials claiming their closure was due to ties to private enterprises or a lack of financial records.
, and have been shuttered, too, as Ortega and the vice president 鈥� his wife, Rosario Murillo 鈥� have sought to eliminate settings where ideas and information freely flow, and people act independently of the government.
The highest-profile religious leader caught up in the clampdown is Rolando 脕lvarez, a popular bishop, critic of Ortega, and a prominent Catholic voice of protest. 脕lvarez , accused of 鈥�,鈥� and sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Police officers and riot police block the main entrance of a church building in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, in August 2022 to prevent Bishop Rolando 脕lvarez from leaving. With international pressure mounting, Alvarez and a group of fellow detained Catholic clergy were released in January 2024 and 鈥� where the regime had previously expelled the apostolic nuncio, the pope鈥檚 top diplomat in Nicaragua. They are among 245 Catholic figures the country in recent years. An additional 135 people, including Catholics , were in September 2024.
Today, . But that percentage used to be much higher, and the country has deep cultural roots in Catholicism.
In Nicaragua, as in much of Latin America, the Catholic Church is the most powerful source of social authority and the largest independent institution . It represents a key channel through which , grow and thrive 鈥� an obstacle, in the regime鈥檚 eyes.
For many years, the Ortega鈥檚 grip 鈥� .
Dangerous path
I have witnessed firsthand Nicaragua鈥檚 shift from a country with promising seeds of democracy to violent autocracy. As between the original Sandinista regime and in the 1980s, I led travel seminars to Nicaragua for faith groups, journalists, congressional aides and university students. I once personally encountered Ortega, serving as translator during a meeting with American journalists when his official translator failed to show up.
Today, as Ortega continues to consolidate power by crushing opposition, Nicaragua has deteriorated into an oppressive state ruled with an iron fist. This reality reflects broader dynamics globally, from autocratic movements in the U.S. and Western Europe to current regimes in Russia, India, Turkey, Hungary and China.
Nicaraguan citizens wave from a bus after being released from a Nicaraguan jail and landing in Guatemala City on Sept. 5, 2024. Closer to home, Ortega poses a regional threat as a model for other potential autocrats. This is especially the case for neighbors like El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele 鈥� the popular, self-described 鈥溾�� 鈥� is going down of turning the nation into an authoritarian state.
I have seen Nicaraguans鈥� generosity and courage in the long fight for liberty and justice. The closure of democratic spaces, civic institutions and humanitarian organizations, along with the suppression of religious freedom, is a glaring sign that the country is being marched toward more oppression and violence 鈥� and, as history shows, risks becoming ripe for revolution.
Only a gradual rebuilding of civil society, I believe, may save Nicaragua from that fate. The tragedy is what Nicaragua could have been: a thriving democratic society, with a commitment to empowering the poor.
________
, President of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies,
This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .
