Pope Francis says Nicaragua is a terrible dictatorship and calls Daniel Ortega unbalanced – International

Rome – in Pope Francis Referring to Nicaragua As a scandalous dictatorship, he said, the president Daniel Ortega It is unbalanced. The statements were announced on Friday, the 10th, in an interview with the Argentine website infobaeafter three days The government of the Central American country has closed down two universities linked to the Catholic Church.

“With great respect, I have no choice but to think of the imbalance in the person running (Nicaragua),” Francisco said, referring to Ortega, who has been in power since 2007 and has been re-elected successively in opinion polls questioned by the opposition and observers.

In the interview, the Argentine pope referred to Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez, He was sentenced in February to 26 years in prison for undermining the unity of the nation, among other charges. “There we have a bishop in prison, a very serious and very capable man. He wanted to testify and did not accept a banishment.”

The 56-year-old Bishop of Matagalpa has been in custody since August on charges of conspiracy and declined to reveal his identity. They were deported to the United States along with 222 other dissidents who were released and expelled from the country accused of being traitors to the homeland.

“It is something outside of what we live, as if recreating the communist dictatorship of 1917 or Hitler’s dictatorship of 1935. Blessed Father.”

Nicaragua faces a wave of discontent from the international community for the authoritarian turn of Ortega, who rules with his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.

Hundreds of dissidents have been arrested in the course of the crackdown that followed massive anti-government protests in 2018.

Since then, Managua has also clashed with the ecclesiastical world and church leaders who have criticized its policies. Almost a year ago, the Ortega dictatorship expelled, for example, the Apostolic Nuncio Waldemar Stanislav Sommertag.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of the Interior revoked the legal status of the University of Juan Pablo II – affiliated to the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua – and the Autonomous Christian University of Nicaragua (UCAN) for allegedly “violating” the laws.

On the same day, the Official Gazette also announced the dissolution of the Catholic charities Caritas Nicaragua and Caritas Diocesana de Jinotega./ France Press agency