The Nicaraguan Church and Daniel Ortega are no longer friends

[Askor lml]

During the celebration, and before thousands of supporters of the Sandinista Front, the Nicaraguan president launched a harsh attack against the bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua.

 

The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega and his wife have no intention of abandoning power. Nor does it seem that the resolution to advance the elections in March 2019 that the Organization of American States approved last week has made them change their minds. The protests and the po[CENSORED]r discontent are more and more evident, and taking advantage of the 39 anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, Ortega charged against the only organization that tries to mediate in the matter: the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN).

During the celebration, and before thousands of supporters of the Sandinista Front, the Nicaraguan president launched a harsh attack against the bishops of the CEN, whom he described as coup plotters. In addition, he accused them of inciting violence and a deep political crisis that is on its way to completing 4 months and that has already left more than 300 dead, and ended up saying that the bishops were disqualified as mediators and witnesses of the dialogue when they asked to advance the elections to March 2019.

Nicaragua has traditionally been a country where the Church has been involved in politics and where 58.8% of the po[CENSORED]tion considers themselves Catholic, including Daniel Ortega, and especially his wife. This approach to the Church, inspired by his wife, caused that in the first days of the protests, Ortega appealed to the bishops to act as mediators in the negotiations with the opposition. In this way, they created a heterogeneous alliance of different groups: students, business associations and agricultural organizations.

However, the negotiations were distorted and all the violence caused the Nicaraguan Church to condemn the Government's actions. Now, Ortega has stopped treating the bishops as neutral mediators and no longer considers them "friends".