From “Pancho Lucifer” to “Paco Pistolas”: the official Nicaraguan press attacks Pope Francis after his interview with GlobeLiveMedia

Despite the fact that neither Daniel Ortega nor Rosario Murillo have so far spoken about Pope Francis’ criticisms of the Nicaraguan regime in an interview with GlobeLiveMedia, the official Nicaraguan press has launched a campaign to discredit the leader of the country. Catholic Church in the world.

The official portal of the Ortega diet, The Digital 19, published in recent days at least three articles directed against Pope Francis, in response to comments made by the Sovereign Pontiff on Nicaragua.

“With great respect, I have no choice but to think of an imbalance in the person who leads (Daniel Ortega). Here we have a bishop in prison (Monsignor Rolando Álvarez), a very serious man, very capable. He wanted to give his testimony and did not accept exile. It is something that is outside of what we live, it is as if it brought the communist dictatorship of 1917 or the Hitlerian dictatorship of 1935, bringing the same here… It’s a kind of crude dictatorships. Or, to use a nice Argentinian distinction, the guarangas. Guarangas,” Francisco pointed out in Daniel Hadad’s interview.

Fabrizio Casari, an Italian who, according to the Expediente Público website, was hired by the Nicaraguan regime to lobby on its behalf, published an article in El 19 Digital two days later entitled “The imbalance of San Pedro”.

“He accused President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo of ‘unbalance’, but the truly unbalanced statements seem to be his, especially when he launches into a comparison as reckless as it is anti-historical, perhaps the result of resentment and non-knowledge, between the Nicaragua of 2023 and the Russia of 1917 or the Germany of 1935”, says Casari.

William Grigsby Vado, director of the official La Primerísima radio station, says that “Jorge Bergoglio is a clear example of the character Nazi, dictatorial, anti-democratic, racist, anti-popular and hypocritical which has characterized the vast majority of Vatican hierarchs of the last five centuries”.

Grigsby Vado laments that “Bergoglio did not even say a prayer in his imperial square for the lives of more than 14,000 Russian citizens from Donbass taken away by Ukrainian soldiers with weapons provided by their Yankee and European guards” and claims that ” Bergoglio’s hands are inks in the blood saint of the Nicaraguan people” by holding him responsible for the violence in Nicaragua in 2018.

“We say it correctly: he instigated roadblocks, he brought snipers to justice, he blessed the murderers of more than 250 Nicaraguans, he protected alcoholic priests and bishops, pedophiles, corrupt and the gunmen who were charged with executing the macabre Somocista plan of 2018 with money from Yankee imperialism; consecrated the weapons that his acolytes hid in their temples in Masaya, La Trinidad, Estelí, Matagalpa, Managua, León, Granada, Jinotepe, Masaya, among many other Nicaraguan cities”, he criticizes in the article also published on the regime’s website is titled “The Blessed Will Overcome Satan.”

“Jorge Bergoglio will be remembered as Lucifer oh Paco Pistols oh yankee boybut never as a preacher of the message of Jesus, much less as an example of Christianity,” he concludes.

The official deputy Moses Pastorin another article, asserts that “the Vatican will continue to be the dictatorial always, the center of a mafia well organized and disguised, the denial of the preferential option of the poor and no doubt a den of child molesters who have already begun, like here, to pay for their crimes and of course to be imprisoned as any criminal should be “.

The Ortega regime has not always referred to Pope Francis in these terms. On the contrary, until February 12 everything was congratulations and flattery. The official language has changed drastically after this Sunday, Pope Francis expressed his regret and concern that the Nicaraguan bishop Roland Alvarez, A vocal critic of the Nicaraguan government, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison in a new government attack on the Catholic Church.

“The news coming from Nicaragua has saddened me greatly,” the pontiff told the crowd gathered for the traditional Sunday blessing in St. Peter’s Square.

A week later, Daniel Ortega himself set the tone for change, at an act commemorating the birth of national hero Augusto C. Sandino.

“I don’t believe in popes or kings. Who is the dad? How many votes does the pope get among the Christian people? In other words, if they want to talk about democracy, they must first elect the priests of the city,” Ortega said on this occasion.

“The people should elect cardinals and there should be a vote among the Catholic people everywhere so that the pope is also directly elected, for the people to decide and not the mafia that is organized in the Vatican,” he said. he adds.

Relations between Nicaragua and the Vatican began to become strained after Ortega expelled the apostolic nuncio from the country in March last year. Waldemar Stanislaw summer dayand the regime intensified the repression against the Catholic Church, leading to the imprisonment of the Bishop of Matagalpa, Msgr. Rolando Álvarez, and the expulsion and exile of some thirty priests, nuns and religious collaborators.

However, Pope Francis has remained silent on these events, an attitude that one sector of the Nicaraguan opposition has described as “cautious” and another criticized as “cowardly” or “accomplice”.

And although the pope broke the silence on Nicaragua during the February 12 mass, the levees gave way after the interview with GlobeLiveMedia. A few hours after the publication of the interview, the regime of Daniel Ortega suspended diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and the official press launched a campaign of “guaranga” against the pontiff, for having used the same adjective that the pope has attached to the Ortega regime.

So far, neither Rosario Murillo nor Daniel Ortega has made an explicit statement on Pope Francis’ statements. Murillo was until recently a public admirer of the Vatican boss.

“Beautiful message for all of Nicaragua of His Holiness Pope Francis, a message that calls us, once again, to live love, to live dialogue, to live forgiveness, to live reconciliation and to build peace,” said Rosario Murillo, Ortega’s wife, as of June 2018. and vice president of the country.

“Pope Francis has been able to contribute, through his messages, through his support, to helping us all rediscover the good life, the Christian life, life in fraternal love and that we all feel this close God whose Holy Father talk so much. . . , this close God who illuminates and arranges our hearts for the best,” he added.

In March 2020, Murillo and Ortega congratulated Francisco on his seven years of pontificate. “Holy Father, in you we have an example of courage, and you are the inspiration of our daily steps. If we know how to listen and see the word and the light of God, which you always announce to us, we will know how, with humility and prudence, without stridency, to put into practice the teachings of this Christ Jesus, redeemer of the world, love, compassion, solidarity and presence that it must be inevitable, in our habits”, expressed part of the letter sent to the Vatican.

In April 2013, Ortega invited Pope Francis to visit Nicaragua. “We want to invite you on behalf of this people who have traveled so many roads seeking to strengthen their right to justice, self-determination and life in human values, to visit these Christian, socialist and solidarity lands”, indicates the letter signed by Ortega in which the dictator emphasized that his government “fully identifies with the values ​​set out for his pontificate”.

Perhaps this is the time when Pope Francis should respond to Daniel Ortega’s invitation.

Continue reading: