Central America
Nicaragua arrests banking executive as clampdown tightens
AFP
Nicaraguan police have arrested a top banking executive as a clampdown on opposition figures and would-be challengers to long-term leader Daniel Ortega tightened ahead of November presidential elections.
Luis Rivas Anduray, executive president of the private Banco de la Produccion (Banpro) — one of Nicaragua’s largest — was arrested Tuesday for “inciting foreign interference,” a police statement said.
His arrest is the latest under a law initiated by Ortega’s government and approved by parliament in December to defend Nicaragua’s “sovereignty.” It is criticized by opponents and rights bodies as a means of freezing out political challengers.
Rivas, also the operations director of the Grupo Promerica — a conglomerate of central American financial institutions — is the 14th person to be arrested in a roundup that started early this month.
Of the detainees, four had declared they would stand in the November elections, in which Ortega is widely expected to also run.
According to the police statement, Rivas is under investigation for “proposing and managing blockades of economic, commercial and financial operations” and for backing sanctions against Nicaragua.
Banpro said in a statement that it operated in adherence with Nicaraguan laws, and was “confident” that Rivas’s “situation will be clarified.”
His arrest is the second of a business figure under the new law. Jose Adan Aguerri, head of the CCIE business federation, was detained on similar charges last week.
Nicaragua has come under fire internationally for the campaign, which began on June 2 when Cristiana Chamorro, the daughter of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was ordered held in house arrest.
The older Chamorro had beaten Ortega in presidential elections in 1990.
The Organization of American States on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on Nicaragua to “immediately release” those arrested “in the current wave of repression.”
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the resolution which he said concluded that conditions for free and fair elections “do not exist.”
“It is time for the Ortega-Murillo regime to change course… and allow the Nicaraguan people to fully exercise their rights — including their right to choose their leaders in free and fair elections,” he said in a statement.
Rosario Murillo is Ortega’s wife and Nicaragua’s vice president.
The government in Managua on Tuesday defended the arrests of opposition figures it said were “usurpers” funded by the United States to topple Ortega.
Ortega governed Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, then returned to power in 2007. He has won two successive reelections since then.
Now 75, he is accused by the opposition and NGOs of increasing authoritarianism.
Central America
El Salvador to host World Cup qualifiers vs. Guatemala and Panama at Estadio Cuscatlán
El Salvador’s national football team will host its final round World Cup qualifying matches against Guatemala and Panama at Estadio Cuscatlán, the honorary president of the National Sports Institute (INDES), Yamil Bukele, announced Thursday via a statement on his X account.
The official explained that this decision comes after the American rock band Guns N’ Roses, originally scheduled to perform at Estadio Cuscatlán on Saturday, October 4, will now hold their concert at Estadio Jorge “El Mágico” González. This change allows both of La Selecta’s qualifying matches to be played at the “Coloso de Monserrat.”
“After a series of efforts and in response to popular demand, we are pleased to announce that our senior national team’s CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches next October (Oct. 10 vs. Panama and Oct. 14 vs. Guatemala) will take place at Estadio Cuscatlán,” the statement reads.
Bukele also thanked the event promoters and the band for agreeing to the stadium change. “We sincerely thank Guns N’ Roses and StarTicket for agreeing to move the concert originally scheduled for October 4 at Estadio Cuscatlán,” the statement adds.
Additionally, Bukele expressed gratitude to the FESFUT Regularization Commission for their efforts with CONCACAF to make this possible, and he urged fans to stay tuned to official channels to purchase tickets and support La Selecta in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
Central America
Honduran president Xiomara Castro suspends activities due to influenza
Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on Thursday that she has “temporarily” suspended her public activities due to a severe influenza virus.
“A strong influenza virus requires me to rest, trusting that I will be fully recovered for the grand celebration of our National Independence Day” next Monday, Castro stated on the social media platform X.
The president had planned to participate in several inaugurations across the northern, central, and eastern regions of the country throughout the week. She added that “these events will be rescheduled for new dates.”
Central America
Nicaragua’s government expels bishops, priests, and nuns in religious persecution
At least 261 religious figures, including the president of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference, Carlos Enrique Herrera, have been expelled as part of the persecution by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime against the Catholic Church, reported the NGO Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más in its report Faith Under Fire.
The report details that among those expelled are bishops Silvio Báez, Rolando Álvarez, Isidoro Mora, as well as the Apostolic Nuncio in Managua, Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, along with approximately 140 priests, over 90 nuns, ten seminarians, and three deacons from different dioceses in the country.
“Since the expulsion of Nuncio Sommertag in March 2022, relations between Nicaragua and the Vatican have significantly deteriorated,” the NGO noted.
The report also documents the closure of 5,609 non-profit organizations, of which 1,294 were religious, including churches, universities, schools, clinics, and humanitarian organizations. Most of these had their assets confiscated by the Sandinista government. Additionally, the telecommunications regulator TELCOR shut down 54 media outlets, including 22 religious radio stations and TV channels.
Repression has extended to other religious denominations, with forced disappearances and criminalization of evangelical pastors, control over temples, media censorship, fiscal pressure, property confiscation, and the cancellation of legal status for the Moravian Church. Pastor Rudy Palacios remains in detention as part of this pattern of persecution.
The NGO emphasized that churches, especially the Catholic Church, played a key role in the 2018 national dialogue, denouncing abuses and providing refuge to injured protesters, which fueled the government’s hostility.
In 2023, Pope Francis described Ortega’s regime as a “blatant dictatorship”, to which the Nicaraguan president responded by dissolving the Society of Jesus and labeling the Church as a “mafia” and “anti-democratic.”
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