Nicaragua considers suspending ties with Vatican after Pope calls Ortega regime a dictatorship

The Nicaraguan government said on Sunday that it was considering suspending relations with the Vatican after Pope Francis compared President Daniel Ortega’s regime to a Nazi or communist dictatorship. 

In a March 10 interview with the Argentine media outlet Infobae, Pope Francis called the Ortega regime a “rude dictatorship” led by an “unbalanced” president. 

“We have a bishop in prison, a very serious and capable man, who wanted to give his testimony and did not accept exile,” Francis said, referring to Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison last month.

“It is something from outside of what we are living as if it were a communist dictatorship in 1917 or a Hitlerian one in 1935.”

In response to the Pope’s comments, the Nicaraguan foreign ministry released a statement on Sunday saying that “a suspension of relations between the Republic of Nicaragua and the Vatican State has been proposed.”

An anonymous senior Vatican source confirmed on Sunday evening that there had been a request from Nicaragua’s government to close each side’s diplomatic missions. The source added that the closure of the embassies does not mean a total break in relations between Nicaragua and the Vatican but could lead to that possibility.

The relationship between Ortega’s regime and the Catholic church has deteriorated since 2018, after the Nicaraguan government violently cracked down on anti-government protests, leaving more than 355 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.

During that time, the church offered shelter to many fleeing the crackdown and then sought to work as an intermediary between the regime and the opposition. 

Since then, Ortega has systematically expelled several nuns and missionaries from the country and has closed down countless Catholic radio and television stations, as well as charities and other civil groups. 

Last August, the regime arrested Bishop Rolando Alvarez, who led the Matagalpa diocese, after a two-week standoff with local police. Similarly, the regime banned the Catholic procession of Our Lady of Fatima, citing “internal security reasons.”