Nicaragua proposes suspension of relations with the Vatican

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Nicaraguan government said Sunday it had offered to suspend diplomatic ties with the Vatican, in a move that comes three days after Pope Francis compared Daniel Ortega’s government to “the communist dictatorship.” of 1917 or the 35 Hitlerites”. ”.

In a statement, the Central American country’s foreign ministry responded to press reports that previously spoke of an alleged diplomatic “break” with the Holy See, amid tension between the Sandinista administration and the local Catholic Church.

“Between the Vatican State and the Republic of Nicaragua, a suspension of diplomatic relations has been proposed,” the Foreign Ministry statement said. The statement did not reveal the reasons for the move.

Vatican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because there has been no official announcement, said late Sunday that there was a request from Nicaragua to close diplomatic missions on either side.

In an interview with Argentina’s GlobeLiveMedia news portal on Thursday, Pope Francis questioned the Ortega government, which last month sentenced Bishop Rolando Álvarez, one of the most critical Catholic voices, to 26 years in prison. Ortega even called the Catholic Church a “mafia” and “the perfect dictatorship.”

“I have no choice but to think of an imbalance in the person who leads (Daniel Ortega). Here we have a bishop in prison, a very serious man, very capable. He wanted to give his testimony and did not did not accept exile,” the pope said in the interview.

“It’s something that is outside of what we are experiencing, it is as if it were (…) the communist dictatorships of 17 or the Hitler dictatorships of 1935. It is a type of crude dictatorship” , he added.

Francisco’s statement was celebrated by opponents of Ortega in Nicaragua, who in recent years had demanded that the Supreme Pontiff adopt a more critical stance toward the Nicaraguan government.

Exactly a year ago, the government of Managua expelled Apostolic Nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, who had advocated for the release of hundreds of opponents imprisoned in 2018 and 2019. The Holy See expressed its “surprise and pain” faced with this measure and declared that the nuncio had been ordered to “leave the country immediately”.

Last August, the Nicaraguan police imposed a siege of more than two weeks around the episcopal curia of Matagalpa (north), holding in captivity the bishop Álvarez as well as three priests and four collaborators, who were then arrested and condemned for alleged “conspiracy”.

On February 9, the government deported 222 “political prisoners”, including collaborators of Álvarez, to the United States. The bishop refused to board the plane, after which he was sentenced to 26 years in prison and locked up in Modelo prison, a prison where thousands of common criminals are held.

President Ortega confirmed the above in a speech in which he called the 53-year-old priest “superb”, “crazy” and “energetic”, for refusing to be exiled.

The Sandinista president has accused Catholic bishops of backing the opposition during 2018 social protests, which the Managua government called a “failed coup” to destabilize Ortega.

Protests were violently suppressed by police and government-affiliated paramilitaries, leaving 355 dead, more than 2,000 injured, 1,600 repeatedly detained and at least 100,000 exiled, according to human rights organizations.

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D’Emilio reported from Rome.