The human rights situation in Nicaragua continues to deteriorate. The authorities recently closed two missionary universities and revoked the legal personality of the Caritas Catholic Church in the country.
(Vatican News Network)The Nicaraguan government recently revoked the legal personality of Caritas and closed two missionary universities, one of which is the University of John Paul II belonging to the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference, and the other is called the Christian Autonomous University of Nicaragua. The country’s interior ministry has ordered the universities to hand over information about students, admissions and academic records to the National Council of Universities.
According to the Official Gazette, the Nicaraguan Catholic Church of Caritas has also been revoked of its legal personality. The communiqué stated: “On January 31, 2023, according to the Minutes of the Extraordinary Meeting No. 79 of the members of Caritas Nicaragua, they agreed to voluntarily dissolve the organization and carry out liquidation.” Since 2019, Caritas Nicaragua has been unable to Receiving international aid for social and pastoral work.
It comes just days after a United Nations report condemned Nicaragua’s ongoing human rights violations and repression of democratic freedoms. “The human rights situation continued to deteriorate during the first two months of 2023, and the politically motivated government was committing widespread human rights violations that constituted crimes against humanity against civilians,” the report said.
The United Nations has asked Ortega’s government to stop the abuses and release 37 people “still arbitrarily deprived of their liberty”, including bishop Rolando Alvarez of Matagalpa whose health is unknown. The bishop was sentenced to 26 years in prison by a Nicaraguan court after refusing to leave the country with other priests and political dissidents.
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