The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president Rosario Murillo canceled the legal personality of Radio María Nicaragua, as well as that of several evangelical churches.
This is stated in ministerial agreement No. 34-2024-OSFL, signed by the Minister of the Ministry of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel Kinlock, and published this July 9 in the official gazette. The Gazette.
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The text of the agreement indicates that the cancellation of the legal personality of the aforementioned Catholic radio has been agreed, as well as that of the Asociación Iglesia Cristiana Príncipe de Paz Casa de Oración (ASICPRIPCO), the Association of Evangelical Churches of Nicaragua Fuente de Jacob and the Apostolic Ministry Association of Pentecost Prophetic Fire (MIAPROFUPENT), in addition to eight other institutions.
The ministerial agreement ensures that these organizations have not reported “for periods of between 02 and 26 years their Financial Statements” with “detailed breakdowns of income and expenses,” which hinders “the control and surveillance of the General Directorate of Registration and Control of Organizations.” Non-Profit of the Ministry of the Interior.
Sources consulted by ACI Prensa point out that it is the same dictatorship, through the Ministry of the Interior, that decides not to receive the Financial Statements when the organizations want to present them, and then argue that as a reason for the cancellation of the legal personality of various organizations. .
The La Gaceta text also specifies that the properties of all the listed organizations will pass “in the name of the State of Nicaragua”, the measure usually taken by the dictatorship when it decides to revoke the legal personality of a non-profit institution.
On April 11, Radio María Nicaragua had already reported that the bank accounts where they receive donations in dollars and córdobas, the local currency, from the Production Bank (Banpro) had been blocked.
“More attacks against the Church” in Nicaragua
“#URGENT: More attacks against the church: Radio María’s accounts were frozen, their programming was altered, they were monitored, harassed and finally today they canceled their legal status. Satanic dictatorship of Nicaragua hates the Church to death,” he lamented in his X account (formerly Twitter) Arturo McFields Yescasformer Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS.
The Nicaragua University Alliance (AUN), denounced for his part that “the Ortega-Murillo regime continues to demonstrate its fear of truth and faith, canceling Radio María Nicaragua. They will not shut us up. We condemn this new attack against freedom of the press and religion. #SosNicaragua.”
From exile, researcher and lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report Nicaragua: A persecuted Churchtold ACI Prensa that “the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship continues to persecute Christians in Nicaragua despite the silence that has been imposed on bishops and priests so that they do not continue to denounce the arbitrary acts that are committed daily.”
“First, Radio María was forced to cut staff and transmission hours due to high operating costs that are attributed to the increase in charges for basic services such as electricity, which is a way that the dictatorship implements to financially suffocate the Church,” he added.
“Then the vice dictator Rosario Murillo forced the radio directors to include in their programming the daily speeches that she broadcasts in the official media,” Molina denounced in statements to ACI Prensa.
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.