Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega last December POOL (Portal)
Pope Francis’ comments about the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, which he called “Hitler dictatorship” and “rude,” have shown that the relationship between the Vatican and the state of Nicaragua is at a point where it there is no turning back. This Sunday, the Sandinista government, through its official media, circulated a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying that the Vatican and Managua “have considered ending diplomatic relations.” The note came to light shortly after the Nicaraguan newspaper Confidencial, whose editorial board was confiscated, reported that the Sandinista government had decided to sever diplomatic ties with the Holy See. The quoted sources close to the Vatican point out that “the representative of the Sandinista government to the Holy See communicated ‘orally’ the rupture of relations in the Vatican Secretariat of State in Rome, alluding to the declarations of the Holy Father in which for the first time he referred forcefully to the regime’s attacks on the Catholic Church”. This break, as Vatican sources confirmed to Portal, also means the closure of the respective embassies.
Before this rupture broke, a source close to the Catholic Church assured EL PAÍS that diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Managua were “frozen” in the context of religious persecution and Álvarez’s 26-year prison sentence. According to this source, this distance from the Holy See not only deepens the international isolation of the presidential couple, but is also a reaction to the “insurmountable wall of evil, lies and cynicism” that the Vatican has encountered in its attempts at dialogue. with the Sandinista government, notably because of the arrest and sentencing of Bishop Rolando Álvarez. The pope was referring to the prelate, who a month ago refused to be exiled to the United States and is currently in prison. “There we have a bishop in prison, a very serious man, very capable. He wanted to make his statement and didn’t accept the exile,” Francisco said.
“I am not giving up hope that after a while Vatican diplomacy will be able to make another attempt at rapprochement. I don’t think they will abandon Monsignor Álvarez. Right now it’s a heavy blow to the dictatorship, which sometimes cynically greets the Pope,” said this source. “I think that in trying to engage in dialogue with the dictatorship, the Vatican has encountered an insurmountable wall of evil, lies and cynicism,” he said.
Francisco’s comments to Infobae on the morning of March 10 surprised various sections of the Nicaraguan population – in particular the opposition and civil society – who, in the face of the repression carried out by Ortega and Murillo, called for more force from the Vatican. Demands mounted as the Sandinista couple stepped up their attacks on the church. The regime recently gagged the Via Crucis processions on public streets and the harassment in the parishes continued, leading to the banishment of dozens of religious.
“With all due respect, I have no choice but to think about an imbalance in the person who is directing [el Gobierno de Nicaragua]. There we have a bishop in prison, a very serious man, very capable. He wanted to give his testimony and did not accept the exile. It’s something that’s outside of what we’re experiencing, it’s like bringing the communist dictatorship of 1917 or the Hitler dictatorship of 1935 and bringing the same thing here… They’re kind of gross dictatorships,” the Pope said.
Some unpublished statements
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In unusual language for Vatican diplomacy, which is usually cautious about remaining as a mediator in international conflicts, comments by Pope Francis, who celebrates his tenth papacy this Monday, suggest that Vatican attempts at mediation through Bishop Álvarez have failed are fed up with the supreme pope.
“We have never heard such a strong and emphatic statement in comparisons of authoritarian regimes of the past. This is fundamental because not only does it show us once again the commitment of the Holy See to countering the encroachment of dictatorship, but also because it allows us to place Nicaragua on the map of historically disastrous dictatorships,” says Pedro Fonseca, an expert in international relations. .
Fonseca analyzed that the Vatican’s attempts at dialogue were unsuccessful and that, for this reason, Pope Francis decided to comment on the Nicaragua case. “With this, the Pope confirms that this channel of communication, if it has existed, has not yet borne fruit,” he reiterated.
In less than a month, various voices of international importance compared the repressive actions of the Ortega and Murillo regimes with those of authoritarian regimes. One of them was Jan-Michael Simon, President of the Expert Group on Human Rights in Nicaragua (Ghren, for its acronym in English), who pointed out that “arming the judicial system against Nicaragua’s political opponents is exactly what the Nazi Regime?
“It seems to me that the Pope shows a great capacity for rectification. For a long time he taught Ortega patience and even condescension, insisting on the need for dialogue. By labeling Ortega as unbalanced and Hitlerian, it is evident that Francisco now has an accurate portrait of Ortega and his dictatorship,” said former opposition MP Enrique Sáenz, who was stripped of his citizenship by the regime on February 15.
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