The National Assembly of Nicaragua, controlled by the government of Daniel Ortega, approved a reform of the Penal Code to punish those who commit crimes from abroad, a measure to keep Nicaraguans in the diaspora “quiet, in silence, without expressing anything.” , as pointed out by the former minister of education, in exile, Humberto Belli.
According to reports APOn September 3, the assembly approved, almost unanimously with 88 votes, the reform that allows the prosecution and confiscation of the assets of Nicaraguan or foreign people or organizations that have committed crimes against the State, even if they are outside the country.
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Penalties can range from six months to 30 years in prison, and even life imprisonment if the crime is considered serious.
These regulations seek to punish whoever, in Nicaragua or outside the country, “promotes, requests or manages economic, commercial and financial sanctions or blockades” against the State, its businesses or its officials.
That same Tuesday the 3rd, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned about “the serious deterioration” of fundamental freedoms in Nicaragua, where the dictatorship continues “to persecute not only those who express dissident opinions, but also anyone.” or organization that acts independently or is not directly under its control.
“Quiet, in silence, without giving any opinion”
For Humberto Belli, former minister of education in Violeta Chamorro’s government and former member of the Sandinista Front—the governing party—this reform means that “if a Nicaraguan (…) abroad participates in some program or expresses an opinion and, therefore, “For whatever reason, the government considers him to be its enemy, they can accuse him in the courts of Nicaragua, without the right to defense, of conspiring against peace, against the established order.”
“And then they confiscate everything this person may have in Nicaragua: his old-age pension, his social security or any property he has,” he denounced.
“It is a sword of Damocles (in constant danger) hanging over all Nicaraguans abroad, so that they remain very quiet, in silence, without giving any opinion,” he said in an interview with EWTN News from Miami, where he lives in exile.
After specifying that “in Nicaragua there is no separation of powers and the judicial system accuses without the need for any proof and without the right to appeal,” the former Nicaraguan minister denounced that the regime of Danie Ortega and Rosario Murillo not only “are punishing people who “They have not been directly involved, as in my case, with some political and opinion activity, but they are punishing the family members.”
They want to end “the preaching of the Gospel” in Nicaragua
When asked about the dictatorship’s persecution against the Catholic Church, Belli told EWTN News that “there is a will, not only to silence it politically but to really put an end to religious influence and the preaching of the Gospel in the country.”
“Otherwise it cannot be explained why one of the first sanctioned were the Missionaries of Charity nuns, of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who were totally apolitical, or why they closed Radio María, a station that never got involved in politics but that (only) preached the Gospel,” he added.
On July 6, 2022, 18 Missionaries of Charity were expelled from Nicaragua, who were sent to Costa Rica, a measure approved by the National Assembly as “urgent,” while Radio María Nicaragua was closed on July 9. July 2024, after their bank accounts, where they received donations, were blocked in April.
Belli also recalled that the dictatorship has closed “also thousands of Protestant and Catholic NGOs, it is an offensive (…) an animosity against the Catholic religion and against Christianity in general.”
On August 19, the Nicaraguan dictatorship canceled the legal personality of 1,500 NGOs, among which there were 678 Catholics and evangelicals, such as the fund for retired priests.
On Thursday, September 5, the White House reported that 135 political prisoners were released and sent to Guatemala, including 13 members of the Puerta de la Montaña Christian church and several Catholic laypeople.
On August 15, Martha Patricia Molina, lawyer and researcher, presented the fifth installment of her report Nicaragua: A persecuted Church? which accounts for 870 attacks by the dictatorship against the Catholic Church, from 2018 to July 2024.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.