The U.S. brokered a deal with Nicaragua’s authoritarian socialist regime to release persecuted Christians and other political prisoners, and allow them safe haven in Guatemala, the Biden administration announced Thursday.
Human-rights activists, practicing Catholics, and 13 people affiliated with the Texas-based Christian missionary organization Mountain Gateway were among the group of 135 prisoners released by the regime. Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega arbitrarily imprisoned them for practicing their religious faith and exercising free expression, one of many steps his regime has taken to crack down on Nicaraguan Christians.
“Nicaraguan authorities unjustly detained these individuals for exercising their fundamental freedoms of expression, of association and peaceful assembly, and of religion or belief. All of them must now undertake the tremendous challenge of establishing their lives in a new country,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Ortega’s regime is actively persecuting Catholic clergy members and laypeople for supposedly undermining the government and inciting violence. He began targeting Catholics when church leaders condemned human-rights abuses in 2018 during a period of unrest, according to a religious freedom report from Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic Church’s organization devoted to supporting Christians.
The crackdown has forced prominent Catholic priests into exile and limited the church’s ability to provide valuable social services to needy rural communities. Monsignor Rolando Alvarez, Catholic Bishop of Matagalpa, was arrested and sentenced to 26 years in prison on charges of treason for speaking out against Ortega.
Alvarez was freed from detention in January and exiled to the Vatican after spending more than 500 days in prison under brutal conditions including solitary confinement. His imprisonment was the subject of a congressional hearing last year and forcefully condemned by the State Department.
The most recent Nicaraguan census, produced in 2005, estimates that 59 percent of the country’s population is Catholic and 22 percent is evangelical. More recent surveys have found that Catholics make up roughly 40 percent of Nicaragua’s population and evangelicals are approaching 40 percent of the population.
These figures were cited in a State Department report detailing Ortega’s repression and the many acts of violence perpetrated against Nicaraguan Catholic churches and worshippers. The U.S. has designated Nicaragua a country of particular concern because of its severe violations of religious freedom.
The U.S. will assist the newly freed prisoners with lawfully entering America or other safe havens through an initiative that expedites refugee resettlement and prevents vulnerable people from having to take dangerous journeys to find freedom.
“Once in Guatemala, these individuals will be offered the opportunity to apply for lawful ways to rebuild their lives in the United States or other countries through President Biden’s Safe Mobility Office initiative,” said national security advisor Jake Sullivan.
“The United States again calls on the Government of Nicaragua to immediately cease the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens for merely exercising their fundamental freedoms.”