Nicaragua’s war on religion

OPINION:

Nicaragua’s U.S.-sanctioned co-dictators, Daniel Ortega and his wife, co-President Rosario Murillo, are waging a war on religion.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called their dictatorship “an enemy of humanity.” The U.S. can and must stop them.

Independent newspapers, universities, civic groups, charities, student organizations and religious institutions have all been suppressed, shut down, confiscated or driven into exile. Any independent institution is treated as a threat.

International human rights groups have found that Nicaragua’s human rights violations amount to crimes against humanity in a state-led campaign to crush all political opposition and dissent, particularly religion.

Since the 2018 uprising against the authoritarian Sandinista regime, Nicaragua has become the most repressive country in the Western Hemisphere where faith is concerned.

More than 300 people were killed during the government’s crackdown on those civic protests. Thousands were injured, detained or forced into exile.

The regime then turned its attention to the institutions that had cared for the wounded, the sheltered and the persecuted and refused to repeat the official lie that peaceful protesters were criminals.

The Catholic Church has received the heaviest blows because it is Nicaragua’s most important independent institution.

The Ortega-Murillo regime has arrested and deported scores of priests, including at least three bishops; forced nuns into exile; closed church-affiliated media; seized religious property; shut down universities; canceled the legal status of charities; restricted public worship; and banned traditional processions.

Managua’s ineffective cardinal archbishop is AWOL.

The Ortegas have used the puppet legislature, courts, police, immigration authorities, bank regulators and nonprofit registration rules to turn normal civic life into a punishable offense.

The Sandinista government turned administrative law into a weapon. It freezes accounts, revokes registrations and accuses civic leaders of treason. It calls Catholic universities “terrorist” centers. More than 5,600 nongovernmental organizations have been forcibly closed.

The regime expelled Mother Teresa’s nuns, the Missionaries of Charity, and shuttered Caritas, the Catholic charitable network that provides humanitarian assistance. Holy Week processions and other religious events are banned. The Vatican nuncio, the pope’s top diplomat in Managua, was declared persona non grata.

The seizure of the Jesuit-run Central American University caused profound concern. The institution was one of the most respected centers of higher learning in Central America and a symbol of academic freedom and political dissent.

The government accused it of being a “center of terrorism,” froze its accounts and confiscated its property, and then created a pro-Sandinista school.

The regime’s campaign has also reached Protestant and evangelical communities. Pastors have been arrested. At least 240 evangelical churches have been closed. Ministries have been stripped of legal status. Properties have been confiscated. Religious groups that once tried to stay out of politics have discovered that neutrality offers no protection when the Sandinistas demand total submission.

Internationally, Nicaragua has aligned itself with countries that punish religion. Managua established relations with North Korea and China and is one of the few countries that recognize the Russian puppet state of Abkhazia.

The Ortegas hosted the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi for a state visit and are vocal supporters of communist Cuba and of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

During the Biden-Harris administration, Nicaragua, together with Cuba and Venezuela, spearheaded our migrant southern border crisis, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars by orchestrating the movement of millions of illegal migrants across our southern border.

The U.S. has sanctioned more than 2,350 Nicaraguan officials and their families and condemned the regime’s abuses, but Mr. Ortega and Ms. Murillo could not care less.

Nicaragua’s continued benefits from CAFTA-DR, the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement, are an anomaly. CAFTA-DR was part of a broader American vision for regional stability, lawful commerce, open markets, transparency and closer partnership with our neighbors.

The U.S. makes up 48% of Nicaragua’s export market. Mr. Ortega benefits handsomely from CAFTA-DR while his regime persecutes religious organizations, destroys civil society and exports instability.

Congress and the Trump administration should immediately suspend Nicaragua’s access to all U.S. markets under CAFTA-DR. CAFTA and remittances are Nicaragua’s economic lifelines, allowing continued religious and human rights abuses. Free trade is incompatible with crimes against humanity.

The Trump administration should also tax and severely restrict U.S. remittances to Nicaragua. Nicaragua receives billions of dollars in remittances each year — a record $5.2 billion in 2024, with $4.3 billion from the United States alone — accounting for 29% of gross domestic product.

After the fall of Nicolas Maduro and the indictment of Raul Castro, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo want to believe that the world has forgotten them. They must be proved wrong and held accountable. The Nicaraguan people deserve freedom.

• Emilio T. Gonzalez is a retired U.S. intelligence officer who has served in senior positions in the U.S. Army, on the National Security Council and in the Department of Homeland Security.