Nicaragua Releases 12 Catholic Priests to the Vatican

Facts

• Following productive talks with the Vatican as well as with Catholic leaders in the country, Nicaragua announced Wednesday that it had released a dozen Catholic priests who were jailed on various charges, sending them to Rome.¹
• The government said the deal, which the Vatican confirmed on Thursday, showed its 'permanent will and commitment to find solutions.' The released clergymen will be taken in and housed in buildings owned by the Diocese of Rome.²
• Among those released were several priests who were held under house arrest at a seminary during the first nine days of October before they were sent to El Chipote prison on Oct. 15.³
• The allegations against the priests ranged from child abuse, threatening others with a weapon, and undermining national sovereignty, among others.³
• This follows a 2022 agreement between Nicaragua and the US in which 222 prisoners were stripped of their citizenship and sent to America on a two-year visa, including five priests, a deacon, two seminarians, and two media professionals employed by the Diocese of Matagalpa. Spain has offered to give them citizenship.⁴
• President Ortega, the leftist leader who has been in power since 2006, has cracked down on the church since 2018 social security cuts triggered massive protests that he deemed a coup attempt. His government in August seized property and assets belonging to the Jesuit-run Central American University, with the UN claiming it was also among 27 institutions to lose its legal status in Nicaragua in recent years.¹

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²ABC News, ³Catholic Review and ⁴National Catholic Reporter.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Catholic News Agency. Ortega's dictatorship has been ripping apart Nicaragua and its democratic institutions for a long time, but his recent treatment of Catholics has reached a new low. Some 200 attacks against Catholic people and their institutions have been reported in the country since 2018 while the Church seeks to bring about peace. Alongside the Pope, the international community must step in to prevent this persecution.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by El País English. Through its willingness to release political prisoners while receiving nothing in return, Ortega has shown that his only goal here is to rid his country of traitors. The word negotiation makes it seem as if these are prisoner exchanges or that the US lifted sanctions in return, but, in reality, those who oppose Ortega have given nothing while the Nicaraguan government has handed over hundreds of people.

Predictions