The Ortega dictatorship has continued its repression of Christians in Nicaragua with the closing of Caritas in the diocese of Matagalpa.
The Ministry of the Interior made the decision and now all assets both movable and immovable, will be transferred to the State.
The Nicaraguan government announced this on 12 August in the country’s official newspaper. They state the reasons for terminating the legal status of Caritas include that the institution did not submit its financial statements from 2020 to 2023 and that its Board of Directors has been expired since 2022.
This closure is just one of the many measures implemented over the past months. Priests have been arrested, such as the rector of the seminary of the diocese of Matagalpa, where Bishop Rolando Alvarez remains bishop, even in exile in Rome.
Since 2018, 46 priests have been expelled from the country. Many of them have been received by the Vatican. On 8 August, seven more arrived in Rome.