In the 1980s, Ireland paid much more attention to countries such as Nicaragua. Although Daniel Ortega’s overthrow of the Somoza regime was popular with the Irish left, some of the interest was due to Irish Catholic missionaries in Central and Latin America. They gave Ireland a wider window into the world. Many of them were influenced by liberation theology and saw Ortega’s rise to power as a sign of hope.
Ironically, Ortega and his vice-president and wife, Rosario Murillo, are now among the greatest persecutors of the Catholic Church. Martha Patricia Molina, of the Pro-Transparency and Anti-Corruption Observatory of Nicaragua, has outlined more than 190 aggressions against the church between 2018 and 2022. These offences and others since 2022 include arson and desecration of churches; arrests and sentencing in what amount to show trials; closure of church media outlets; expulsions of Catholic non-governmental organisations including Trócaire and Mother Teresa’s religious order; and dire prison conditions.
The most recent example is the sentencing of Bishop Rolando Álvarez to 26 years in prison along with stripping him of citizenship after he refused deportation to the US when 222 other political prisoners were exiled on February 9th. He had already been under house arrest since August 2022 for his courageous opposition to the regime.
Persecution is far from confined to the Catholic Church. The regime targets any opposition in the media or civil society but the church is the most significant remaining opposition.
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Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index 2022 gives Nicaragua a score of 19 out of a possible 100. TI has called it “the third dictatorship in the region” because of an “illegitimate electoral process, systematic human rights abuses and an absolute concentration of power in the hands of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo”. Given that many potential electoral opponents were jailed, recent elections were a mockery of democracy.
In 2018, a series of proposed social support reforms became a lightning rod for anger among ordinary Nicaraguans. When brutal repression by the Sandinistas followed, most of Ortega’s former Irish supporters began to ruefully accept that the dreams of a just revolution lay in ashes.
Michael D Higgins used to be Ortega and Murillo’s personal friend, famously offering them a drop of whiskey in his Galway home. (Ortega smilingly declined in favour of a cup of tea.)
Last December, the President called on his former friend to respect human rights and expressed “the deepest sense of sadness and disappointment” about the abuses.
In contrast, Sinn Féin appears to be in a time warp. Valdrack Jaentschke has held numerous high-profile roles in the Ortega-Murillo regime, including deputy foreign minister. Sinn Féin invited him to attend their ardfheis last November. In February 2022, El 19 Digital, a pro-regime media outlet, reported that Declan Kearney, Sinn Féin’s former chairman and MLA, met Nicaraguan ambassador, Guisell Morales.
“Comrade Kearney” welcomed the “electoral victory” and “the good progress of the Sandinista [National Liberation] Front” and “reiterated that [Sinn Féin] will continue to accompany the Nicaraguan people with their solidarity”.
Will Sinn Féin hold meetings with the 222 exiled political prisoners, who include journalists, priests and civil society representatives deported to the US on the grounds of being “traitors to the homeland”?
One of those released, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, an aspiring presidential candidate, is a nephew of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who successfully defeated Ortega in the 1990 presidential election.
In a Confidencial interview, Chamorro said: “It wasn’t in Ortega’s plans to have the bishop make such a courageous decision to remain, to refuse to leave the country. That’s what triggered his venomous reaction of sentencing him to 26 years in prison, which I’m sure won’t last very long.”
Legendary activist Dora María Téllez, historian, former Sandinista commander and health minister, was also released. She believes the expulsion signals Ortega’s inability to defeat the political prisoners and a futile hope of silencing them. Instead, people of every political stripe developed a sense of unity in prison.
When Bishop Álvarez refused to go, he knew that he faced severe danger but also that it would continue to focus international attention on Nicaragua. Hugely popular in his diocese of Matagalpa, he knew he could be rendered ineffective by leaving.
The Vatican is in a delicate position. Pope Francis has expressed his distress but too much pressure might be counterproductive. The memory of the assassination of Bishop Oscar Romero in 1980 lingers. In contrast, Ireland can use its influence.
Even in allegedly post-Catholic, secular Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs has frequently acknowledged how Ireland’s volunteering and missionary traditions have built deep personal connections with people and communities around the world.
These connections, including the fact that so many political leaders were educated by Irish missionaries, are in part the reason for Ireland’s not-inconsiderable soft power. It now needs to be used to advocate for courageous prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua, including Bishop Álvarez. Spain has offered to give Spanish citizenship to the 222 prisoners who were released. The Organization of American States has spoken out in the strongest terms, as has the EU. Ireland must continue to add its voice for justice.