Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega’s regime attacks La Prensa newspaper for denouncing the expulsion of 18 nuns

After having ordered the expulsion of the Missionaries of Charity – a congregation founded by Mother Teresa -, the Nicaraguan government now he goes for one of the few local papers who dared to report what happened.

Two independent newspaper drivers the print they were jailed and police broke into the homes of two reporters, according to an employee of that outlet.

The reporters had covered the expulsion of 18 nuns on Thursday of the Missionaries of Charity after the government of President Daniel Ortega ordered the closure of the congregation at the end of June.

The measure falls the repression of the Ortega government against opponents and almost all civic organizations not allied to his regime.

Persecution

The La Prensa employee, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said Friday that two drivers they were taken to the infamous El Chipote prisonwhere politicians and journalists are held.

The government has jailed nearly 190 people that human rights organizations and the US State Department consider political prisoners, including seven who could have challenged Ortega for presidency in the election in which he was re-elected in November.

Renata Holmann, daughter of Juan Lorenzo Holmann, the director of La Prensa in prison, she said her father suffered from chronic illnesses and additional health problems which he developed in prison after his arrest last August.

Holmann was arrested when police raided and took over the offices in La Prensa. He was subsequently sentenced to nine years in prison. for alleged money laundering, an accusation often directed at opponents and journalists.

The closure of the local office of the Missionaries of Charity brought the number of non-governmental organizations to 758 closed in Nicaragua for the past four years.

The government says these organizations have not met the 2020 requirement of register as “foreign agents”.

Against all

Although Ortega began to cancel groups he considered to be linked to the opposition, the government now appears determined to eliminate to any organization beyond its control.

The Missionaries of Charity have been in Nicaragua for 34 years, where they ran a children’s center, a shelter for girls and a home for the elderly. The missionaries gave courses in music and theater, as well as professional training for children who were victims of violence.

The closures have affected a wide range of organizations, among them the Nicaraguan Society of Pediatrics Associationthe Nicaraguan Development Institute, the Nicaraguan Confederation of Professional Associations and the Nicaragua Internet Association.

The Cocibolca Equestrian Center, the Rotary Club of the western city of León and the Operación Sonrisa association in Nicaragua, which funded three surgeries for children with cleft lip and cleft palate, were also closed before closing in March.

A prominent businessman associated with that group had participated in the 2018 anti-government protests.

Many of these organizations have dedicated themselves to helping the most marginalized people in this nation. with high levels of poverty.

Ortega accused various non-governmental groups of working for foreign interests to destabilize his government.

Agency AP

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