Nicaragua's Ortega regime seizes country's top Catholic university

Nicaragua on Tuesday seized all of the assets belonging to one of the country’s top universities, run by the Jesuits, as the regime continues to crack down against Catholic-led institutions. 

The Central American University (UCA) sent a letter to the university community in which it states that the criminal court of Managua had ordered all of its assets to be transferred to the government. 

The order received by the university said that the regime of Daniel Ortega would guarantee all educational programs going forward. 

Furthermore, the Nicaraguan judge ordered that the university suspend all of its classes and administrative activities. However, no restart date was given, leaving its 9,500 enrolled students stranded. 

Founded in 1961, UCA has become one of the country’s top universities. Many of its graduates include members from Nicaragua’s political and business class, including three of Ortega’s sons. Ortega himself studied law at UCA but quit when he joined the Sandinista rebel movement. 

The regime has accused the university of being a “center for terrorism organized by criminal groups” and its professors of “betraying the trust of the Nicaraguan people” and of “transgressing against the constitutional order.”

Many UCA graduates took part in the violent 2018 protests against the Ortega regime, which left more than 300 civilians dead and left over 2,000 injured, according to human rights groups. Since then, it has been a target of the Ortega Regime. 

In a statement released on August 16, the Central American Province of the Society of Jesus claimed that the accusations against the university are “totally false and unfounded.” They described the seizure of assets as a “government policy that is systematically violating [human] rights…[and] aimed at consolidating a totalitarian state.”

Last week, Nicaraguan authorities ordered the suspension of the university’s bank accounts and some of its top executives. UCA officials sent an email to students and staff saying that they were not able to receive any payments corresponding to fees or services due to reasons beyond their control. 

UCA is not the first private university in the Central American country that has been seized by the regime—more than two dozen others have been targeted.