Central America
Costa Rica receives nuns expelled from Nicaragua by Daniel Ortega
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.
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.
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.
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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