The exiled Nicaraguan Catholic lawyer Martha P. Molina has denounced that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo would be using the figure of Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, as part of a strategy to project the image that in Nicaragua “there is no religious persecution”.
In an interview granted to Vida Nueva, Molina argues that the Sandinista dictatorship systematically resorts to “iconic figures” of the Catholic Church to sustain its official narrative, in the same way that in the past it used the image of the late Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo. The objective, she states, would be to pretend a normalized coexistence between the regime and the Church, both at the national and international level.
Official gestures with a conciliatory appearance
The lawyer’s statements come after two recent events presented by the Nicaraguan government as favorable gestures toward the Church. The first was the official delivery of the restoration works of the Gaudium et Spes mural, located in the Santo Domingo parish in Managua, an event attended by Cardinal Brenes along with members of the clergy.
The second was the reinauguration of the Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo University (UNICA), presented by the authorities as a “living testimony” of the educational legacy of the late prelate. Religious Eddy Montenegro participated in that event.
For Molina, these initiatives are part of a communicative strategy by the regime. “This is not the first time they have done it, nor will it be the last. The Sandinista dictatorship, in addition to violating human rights, is lying and opportunistic, and will always seek to project a democratic image,” she affirmed.
Questions about Cardinal Obando University
The lawyer also referred to the case of UNICA, pointing out that it is an institution that, in its origin, was supposed to belong to the Catholic Church. According to her explanation, the lands were donated to Cardinal Obando on behalf of the Church of Nicaragua, but later they would have been appropriated personally and inherited to the family of Roberto Rivas, former president of the Supreme Electoral Council, repeatedly accused of electoral fraud and illicit enrichment.
“Let us not fall into the deception”
Regarding the restoration of the Christ in the Santo Domingo parish, Molina affirmed that it is another attempt to “clean the face” of a regime that, in practice, continues to persecute Christians. In her opinion, both the reopening of the university and the restoration of the temple are part of an official narrative that seeks to hide the reality of repression.
“The supposed coexistence with the Church is not real. The repression continues and we must not fall into the dictatorship’s deception,” she warned.
Thousands of documented aggressions
To conclude, Molina recalled that, according to the reports she has prepared on the situation of the Church in Nicaragua, between 2019 and the present, more than 19,800 aggressions and attacks against priests, nuns, and laypeople have been documented, including prohibitions on processions and public religious acts.
“In Nicaragua, there is no respect for religious freedom,” she affirmed, emphasizing that the regime’s official gestures do not reflect the real situation that the Church lives in the country.