Religious of the Missionaries of Charity Association, of the order of Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)left Nicaragua this Wednesday, after the government of Daniel Ortega outlawed their operations last week, reported a humanitarian source.
“Ortega, the same one who received Mother Teresa of Calcutta in the 1980s, is the one who expelled her religious congregation from the country,” denounced the independent Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) on Twitter.
According to the Cenidh, the nuns, around 15, were deported as if they were “criminals.”
The religious organization was annulled last week by Parliament, controlled by the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), along with a hundred NGOs, on the grounds that they broke the law by not reporting their financial statements or explaining the origin. of the donations they receive.
According to the Cenidh, the nuns, around 15, were deported as if they were criminals
According to the Ministry of the Interior, which controls NGOs and has promoted the annulment of more than 700 of these organizationsthe Missionaries of Charity were not accredited to carry out social assistance operations.
The Cardinal of Nicaragua and Bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, Leopoldo Brenes, lamented “deeply” on Monday the closure of the foundation that, he said, provided “assistance to the poorest.”
The Cenidh, for its part, considered that the authorities violated “the honor and reputation” of the nuns “by stating that they were not accredited” and “were working illegally in Nicaragua.”
He estimated that the decision leaves “countless” Nicaraguans who received shelter and food defenseless, and is in turn “a declaration of hatred of the church.” According to the newspaper La Prensa, the nuns, who were of various nationalities, left
Nicaragua to Costa Rica through the land border.
The government has not commented on the matter. This controversy is one more example of the strong tensions between the Ortega government and the Catholic Church since 2018, when several temples opened their doors to shelter protesters who were fleeing and were injured during the repression of the social protests of that year. .
Ortega, a former guerrilla in power since 2007, attributed the protests to a failed coup promoted by the opposition, with the support of the United States, and accused the bishops of being part of that plot.
Last March, the Nicaraguan government expelled Nuncio Waldemar Sommertag, while in May two priests denounced harassment by the government. Between May and June, the authorities also closed two Catholic television channels.
AFP
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