In Nicaragua, President Ortega restricts Holy Week processions

Palm Sunday around the cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, April 2, 2023. REUTERS - MAYNOR VALENZUELA

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2 min

This Easter weekend, which marks the end of Holy Week, hundreds of thousands of Catholics are taking part in processions across much of the world. Whether in Spain or Latin America, this tradition continues. But not in Nicaragua. In this country led by Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who holds the vice-presidency, processions outside churches have simply been banned since Thursday, April 6. The Church in Nicaragua is an opposition to dictatorship.

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If no official text specifies it, the traditional processions of Holy Week are still banned this year in Nicaragua. And if some venture into the streets to try to defy the prohibitions, it is with the fear of being caught by the police, on the alert since the beginning of this week.

This decision of President Daniel Ortega is part of the showdown he has with the Church and more precisely the Vatican. For years, Managua has not hesitated to expel priests. Last February, the courts even sentenced Bishop Rolando Alvarez to 26 years in prison for, among other things, "treason to the homeland", while he had refused on February 9 to be deported to the United States.

On Tuesday, April 4, a Panamanian priest, who has been living in Cusmapa for a year, was reportedly expelled by the security forces in Honduras, accused of leading a procession in this small town located in the center of the country.

The situation is very tense and the question of a rupture of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Nicaragua is even more topical. In any case, this is what a statement from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested after Pope Francis called the regime in place a "crude dictatorship" and Daniel Ortega "unbalanced".

► Read also Jan Simon (UN): "We have documented systematic and serious violations of human rights in Nicaragua"

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Read on on the same topics:

• Nicaragua
• Religion
• Daniel Ortega
• Vatican