Rafael Manuel Tovar
On Sunday, July 2, the Sandinista Police entered as criminals the House of the Sisters of the Fraternity of the Poor of Jesus Christ Foundation. Martha Paredes, investigator of the attack, reported on the social networks that the Sisters were preparing to leave the country.
The Fraternity of the Poor of Jesus Christ Foundation had been working in Nicaragua since August 2019. They received legal personality and were registered in the Ministry of the Interior. The Congregation belongs to a Franciscan Fraternity founded in Brazil in 2001 and present today in 14 countries.
This police intervention was possibly conceived much earlier. According to La Gaceta, the Ministry of the Interior cancelled the Fraternity’s registration on Friday, June 30. The move was published officially on July 4, 2023.
According to independent press reports, the nuns received the cancellation of their permission to reside in the country and intended to go to El Salvador in the coming days. It seems that they have sought refuge in the country, although this has not been officially confirmed.
According to a document of the Ministry of the Interior, the nuns operated in breach of their obligations under the Law.” Their permission supposedly expired in January 2021, and they did not report financial statements for the “fiscal periods of 2020, 2021 and 2022, with detailed breakdowns of income and expenses, trial balance, donations details.”
There are now 3,000 non-governmental organizations with legal personality cancelled since 2018. Their assets, as well as those of the Fraternity of the Poor of Jesus Christ Foundation, pass into the hands of the State, as cited in the document.
The nuns were transferred to an unknown destination. Guards are posted at the house where they lived.
The Nicaraguan Police’s intervention is surprising, as the Sandinista Government presents itself as defender of the poor, but attacks members of the Church dedicated to the neediest. The Fraternity of the Poor of Jesus Christ Foundation handed out clothes, food and offered prayers for people living on the street. Hence the Sandinista power has demonstrated a way of acting geared to dominating the country and imposing its strictly political interests.
The Ortega regime’s persecution is repeating its aggression against nuns dedicated to the poor, as happened with the expulsion a year ago of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, who were working in the country.
The regime governing Nicaragua ignores the international sentiment that calls for dialogue and respect, such as the Declaration of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which issued a resolution at the end of June calling for the release Religious imprisoned illegally. Every government can act with justice and from human values, signs not seen in Daniel Ortega’s actions.
