More than 30 nuns were expelled from three convents in Nicaragua and their whereabouts are uncertain, according to a Church affairs researcher and Nicaraguan media in exile who denounce persecution of religious figures by Daniel Ortega’s government. Lawyer and Catholic Church affairs expert, Nicaraguan Martha Patricia Molina, said that the nuns of the Order of Saint Clare were “removed, evicted from their monasteries” on Tuesday night by the leftist government.
Molina added that the whereabouts of the nuns, most of them Nicaraguan, or “whether they left the country” is currently unknown. “Night of terror for religious women: Sandinista dictatorship notifies Poor Clare nuns that they must abandon their properties. They were only allowed to take few belongings, just what they could carry in their hands,” wrote the activist, who is exiled in the United States, on X.
According to Confidencial, published in exile from Costa Rica, the nuns were expelled from convents in Managua, the capital, and in Matagalpa (north) and Chinandega (northwest). Meanwhile, La Prensa newspaper, whose editorial staff is also in exile, detailed that the religious order was legally established in Nicaragua in 2004, but in 2023 it was canceled along with other NGOs linked to the Church.
Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, accuse the Catholic Church of having supported the opposition protests of 2018 that left more than 300 dead, according to the UN, and which they consider a Washington-sponsored coup attempt. A constitutional reform approved at the end of last year, which will come into effect in the coming days and gives absolute power to Ortega and Murillo, establishes that the State will “monitor” the press and the Church to ensure they do not respond to “foreign interests.”
