Breda O’Brien: Daly and Wallace equivocate over Nicaraguan regime

Nicaraguan president’s crackdown on the Catholic Church is part of a broader move to silence all opposition voices

Simon Coveney, never yet accused of being a leftie, and Chile’s President Gabriel Boric, described by Time Magazine as Chile’s most left-wing president in 50 years, have a similar position on Nicaragua.

Both have condemned the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Ortega-Murillo regime. Coveney has called “unacceptable and alarming” the “human rights violations, crackdowns on opposition voices and independent media, and backsliding on democratic norms that have been observed in Nicaragua”. On Tuesday last, while addressing the UN, Boric called for the release of Nicaraguan political prisoners and the restoration of democracy.

Daly told the president of the parliament that the motion was ignoring ‘the history of anti-imperialist and class struggle’ in Nicaragua

Clare Daly, MEP for Dublin, on the other hand opposed an EU Parliament motion on September 14th condemning breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Nicaragua, in particular the arrest of the bishop Rolando Álvarez. She told the president of the parliament that the motion was ignoring “the history of anti-imperialist and class struggle” in Nicaragua. The motion was mistaking the views of the “comprador middle class” for the real views of the people. (Comprador class is a Marxist term for those acting as agents for foreigners engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation.) Daly said before concluding: “I’m not here to excuse repression, but we are the last people who should be lecturing Nicaragua.”

Fellow MEP Mick Wallace told the debate that Bishop Alvarez, like anyone, should have a right to voice opposition to the government before declaring that the “CIA funded some far-right criminals who plotted death and destruction” in Nicaragua in 2018. He stated that “Bishop Alvarez, with his own TV station and several radio stations, was also heavily involved”, that he was “no saint”, and that the crimes the bishop has been accused of are serious and merit a “fair and thorough investigation”.

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Nicaraguan police raided Bishop Ronaldo Alvarez’s house before dawn in mid-August. Before this raid, there was a two-week blockade where the bishop, along with five priests, one seminarian and a layman involved in media, were kept under de facto house arrest although not charged with any offence. They were not even allowed to have food delivered.

The bishop still has not been charged but remains under house arrest. The other seven are presumed to be in the notorious El Chipote prison, where up to 200 political prisoners are housed.

President Daniel Ortega and his vice-president wife, Rosario Murillo, were re-elected in a farce of an election last year. Potential presidential candidates and other political opponents were arrested and accused of treason, subjected to closed trials and subsequently given long jail sentences.

Among them was legendary activist Dora María Téllez, now in her mid-60s and a vocal critic of the regime. As a young guerrilla fighter in 1978, she stormed Nicaragua’s presidential palace. Government officials were held hostage in an attack widely seen as vital to the eventual Sandinista overthrow of the corrupt Somoza dynasty.

In February, she was convicted of treason and now faces eight years in prison. Her fellow 1970s Sandinista leader, Hugo Torres, died in prison in February aged 73, eight months after being detained on treason charges.

Outspoken critic

Thousands have fled Nicaragua into neighbouring Costa Rica and further afield. The regime systematically targeted political opponents and closed down or silenced many media outlets, including seven small Catholic radio stations in Bishop Alvarez’s diocese. It then set about silencing the Catholic Church, one of the few organisations still with any platform.

Mick Wallace’s claims will, no doubt, be used as propaganda by the Ortega-Murillo regime, just as his pronouncements... have been used approvingly by state media in Russia and China

Mother Teresa’s congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, was expelled last year. This week, the Sisters of the Cross were expelled. Their main focus was prayer and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Matagalpa Cathedral. Trócaire, along with some 1,000 other NGOs, has had the right to operate in Nicaragua rescinded.

Bishop Alvarez has been an outspoken critic of the Ortega-Murillo regime and called many times for the restoration of civil rights and democracy. Mick Wallace’s claims will, no doubt, be used as propaganda by the Ortega-Murillo regime, just as the pronouncements of the “Golden Lion King” (as Wallace is known by some Chinese media) have been used approvingly by state media in Russia and China.

Fr Kevin O’Higgins SJ has spent years in Paraguay, initially during Alfredo Stroessner’s right-wing military dictatorship, and he has a more than a passing interest in Nicaragua.

Higgins believes that the move against Alvarez is not about right-wing or left-wing politics but classic tactics from the dictatorship playbook, pointing to the enormous wealth accumulated by the Ortega- Murillo family and the shocking levels of corruption in Nicaragua.

Higgins believes that the game plan is to crush the remaining critics in the church by forcing them into exile or arresting them. There have been more than 200 attacks against the Catholic Church since 2018, including a fire in Managua Cathedral, along with police harassment and persecution of bishops, priests and lay people.

Far from protests coming from some compromised comprador class, Higgins highlights St Jerome Church in Masaya, where the police this week tried to prevent a procession in honour of the local patron saint. Thousands of ordinary working-class people, with tremendous courage, faced up to the police.

Meanwhile, Wallace and Daly continue to equivocate.