The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo intensified their religious persecution and ordered the closure of the personal bank accounts of priests from various dioceses in the country, condemned the exiled Nicaraguan lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina.
Ecclesiastical sources told LA PRENSA that they are aware of cases involving the closure of personal bank accounts of religious from the Diocese of Granada, Jinoteca and the Archdiocese of Managua. However, lawyer Molina warned that “this action could be generalized in the next few hours.”
This newspaper spoke to a priest, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and confirmed that he was one of the victims of the operation.
When priests affected by the move try to enter their online bank accounts, it appears that “the user is blocked,” according to Molina, who shared with the shooting, that this arbitrariness affects “more priests and/or lay people.”
Diocese at trial
The new move is a continuation of the regime’s frontline attack against the Catholic Church. In late May, Ortega and Murillo ordered the freezing of the bank accounts of at least three of the clergy’s nine dioceses.
The dioceses with blocked bank accounts are Managua, led by Cardinal Leopoldo Brenz, and Matagalpa and Esteli, led by imprisoned Bishop Rolando Alvarez, who has been deprived of his liberty since August 2022 and sentenced to more than 26 sentences. Years in prison for political crimes considered “treason”.
The police officially announced that they are investigating “illegal activity in the management of funds and bank accounts” from various dioceses in the country and other activities that are part of a money laundering network they have discovered in some dioceses.
At this time, private banks did not mention the control of bank accounts of dioceses or priests.
Attacks by the regime against the Catholic Church
“Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?” Molina, the author of the report, has recorded at least 529 attacks by the Ortega dictatorship against the Catholic Church since April 2018; 90 of them have been confirmed so far in 2023.
In recent years, the regime has intensified attacks against the Catholic Church, imprisoning priests, expelling clerics from the country and banning religious activities outside temples.
It has canceled many social and charitable institutions, Catholic ecclesiastical shelters, educational centers, Catholic tax media, and expelled nuns and priests from the country.
