Daniel Ortega continues to brutalize and repress the Catholic Church. This time, the Nicaraguan dictator accused the Central American University (UCA), a higher education center run by the Jesuits, of "terrorism," in addition to confiscating their properties, including their real estate and money.
Through a statement, the UCA assures that the Sandinista regime blames it for "having betrayed the trust of the Nicaraguan people" and for "having transgressed the constitutional order, the legal order, and the order that governs the Institutions of Higher Education of the country." In addition, the educational center adds that this aggression is linked to the fact of having welcomed opponents during the protests that occurred five years ago:
This new government aggression against the University is not an isolated event; It is part of a series of unjustified attacks against the Nicaraguan population and other educational and social institutions of civil society that are generating a climate of violence and insecurity and exacerbating the country's socio-political crisis. Since 2018, as a result of its stance in defense of the lives of people who were being repressed by state and parapolice forces, the UCA has been subject to a constant siege and harassment by Nicaraguan government institutions.
COMUNICADO pic.twitter.com/mp43Y8zDZC
— Jesuitas CAM (@jesuitascam) August 16, 2023
"A policy aimed at consolidating a totalitarian state"
The UCA – in which at least three of Ortega's children studied and, even, the dictator himself studied half a year, according to Infobae- continued denouncing that "this is a government policy that is systematically violating human rights and seems to be oriented to consolidate a totalitarian state," apart from the fact that "it is necessary and essential that our University be allowed to exercise its inalienable right to legitimate defense against such accusations."
Because of this, the center demands that "the drastic, unexpected and unjust measure adopted by the judicial body be immediately reversed and corrected," "the growing government aggression against the University and its members be stopped" and "seek a national solution in which truth, justice, dialogue and the defense of academic freedom prevail."
It is the latest exhibition that reflects the anti-Catholic persecution of Daniel Ortega. In less than a year, the Nicaraguan dictator has banned processions, suspended institutional relations with the Vatican and frozen the bank accounts of the Catholic Church after accusing it of money laundering. He also arrested, in less than six months, several members of the Catholic Church such as Bishop Rolando Álvarez, three priests and two seminarians.
