Central America

Costa Rica receives nuns expelled from Nicaragua by Daniel Ortega

Photo: Courtesy

April 13 |

Costa Rica received on Wednesday two nuns of the Dominican Congregation of the Annunciation who left Nicaragua after being expelled by the government of President Daniel Ortega.

The bishop of the Diocese of Tilarán-Liberia, Monsignor Manuel Eugenio Salazar, expressed his willingness to provide any support required by these nuns, who also have Costa Rican nationality, as well as their families and the rest of the congregation.

“The two religious sisters of the Dominican congregation of the Annunciation, Isabel and Cecilia Blanco Cubillo, expelled from Nicaragua, were received by their sister Violeta Blanco Cubillo together with her husband, Carlos Vargas, after 2 p.m., today, Wednesday 12”, informed the diocese in a communiqué.

The women were in charge of the Lopez Carazo Foundation Home for the Elderly, in the city of Rivas, in the south of Nicaragua, on the Pacific coast. However, the Ortega government gave the nuns 72 hours to leave the country, reported Confidencial, directed by journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro.

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Along with the Costa Rican nuns there was also a Salvadoran woman in charge of the Home for the Elderly.

The Nicaraguan government has not made any statement on the expulsion of the nuns.

Voice of America asked for comments from the expelled missionaries, but they declined to talk about it.

The López Carazo home for the elderly was founded in 1916, according to local media, and the land where it is built was donated by the family of former president Evaristo Carazo.

Nicaragua is going through a political crisis which on April 18 will be five years old, with no way out in sight.

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Ortega has undertaken a persecution against the Catholic Church, according to human rights organizations, and has expelled the Vatican envoy in Nicaragua, Waldemar Stanislaw Sommmertag. He is also keeping in jail an important bishop accused of “emitting false news”, among other crimes.

Related Topics:Costa Rica Daniel Ortega Nicaragua

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“The Iranian national soccer team is welcome at the World Cup, but I really don’t think it’s appropriate for them to be there, for their own safety,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

His comments came a day after Iran’s sports minister, Ahman Donyamali, said that there are currently no conditions for the country to participate in the tournament following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, during a military offensive launched on February 28 by Israel and the United States.

“After the corrupt government killed our leader, there are no conditions that allow us to take part in the World Cup,” the Iranian official said. He added that the country has faced two wars in the past eight or nine months, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths, making participation in the tournament unlikely.

On Tuesday, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, met with Trump at the White House.

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Following the meeting, Infantino said that Trump reiterated that Iran’s national team would be allowed to compete in the FIFA World Cup 2026.

“We discussed the current situation in Iran and the fact that the Iranian team has qualified to participate in the FIFA World Cup 2026. During the conversation, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States,” Infantino wrote on Instagram.

Central America

UN Rapporteur Warns of “Deep Crisis” in Guatemala’s Judicial System

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, said Monday that Guatemala’s judicial system is facing a “deep crisis” after evaluating the country’s institutional situation.

Speaking at a press conference in Guatemala City, the UN official explained that several factors have weakened judicial independence and placed the justice system in a “critical” situation.

Among the main problems identified were the “instrumentalization of justice,” concentration of power, and persecution of judicial officials, elements that, according to Satterthwaite, undermine the functioning of the rule of law in the country.

Satterthwaite presented these conclusions while releasing her final report on the visit she carried out in May 2025, when she spent 12 days in Guatemala assessing the performance of the judicial system.

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The rapporteur also reiterated her concern about the role of the Public Ministry of Guatemala, noting that the information collected points to the existence of a policy of criminalization against justice operators.

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She also stressed that key appointments expected in the coming months will be decisive for the future of the judicial system, including the selection of a new Constitutional Court of Guatemala, a new Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Guatemala, and a new attorney general to replace the current head of the Public Ministry, Consuelo Porras.

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Central America

UN Report Warns of Nicaragua’s “Transnational” Surveillance Network Targeting Dissidents

A special panel of the United Nations accused the government of Nicaragua on Tuesday of diverting public funds to finance the repression of political opposition both inside and outside the country, including through what it described as a “transnational network” of surveillance and intelligence.

The panel presented a new report to the press on the situation in the Central American nation, which has been governed since 2007 by President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president Rosario Murillo.

Based on dozens of interviews and extensive documentary evidence, the report states that since 2018—the year when student protests erupted and were violently suppressed—public funds have been diverted to support repression, including money originally allocated for social assistance programs and public sanitation projects.

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The investigation was carried out at the request of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

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Another key finding of the report concerns the existence of a surveillance and intelligence network that extends far beyond Nicaragua’s borders, allegedly used to monitor, intimidate, and target hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans living abroad.

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