(OSV News): Nicaragua’s ruling Sandinista regime seized The Colegio San José de Jinotepe, a prominent Catholic school, claiming without proof that it had operated a “torture” centre during past protests and renaming the education facility for a slain partisan.
A project of the Congregation of the Josephine Sisters, the school was “transferred to the state” on August 12, according to the country’s co-president, Rosario Murillo, and renamed “Héroe Bismarck Martínez”.
Supporters of the Sandinista regime claim Martínez was tortured and murdered in Jinotepe during the protests of 2018, when Nicaraguans took to the streets and demanded the ouster of then-president, Daniel Ortega—now co-president with his wife, Murillo.
An investigation by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission found 355 individuals died during “the repression of social protests.”
Details of Martinez’s disappearance and death remain mysterious, but Ortega criticised the country’s bishops in 2019 for not condemning Bismark’s death.
“In Jinotepe, a centre where there was torture and murder; the coup d’état, during the nefarious, criminal occupation of the city of Jinotepe, comrades were tortured and murdered. And where did these crimes occur? At the San José school, unfortunately,” Murillo claimed in comments spread through pro-government channels and repeated on social media.
The expropriation of the Colegio San José de Jinotepe continued the Sandinista regime’s crackdown on the Catholic Church and its educational projects in a country where even the most mild dissent is not tolerated and priests must watch their words during Mass
“We have a new school. This is an achievement of peace, of the peace we live, the peace we safeguard, the peace we deserve,” she said.
Independent news outlet Confidencial reported school officials had refused to bend to pressure from the Sandinistas to fly the movement’s black and red flag rather than the country’s official blue and white flag, and that students engaged in “patriotic” activities.
The expropriation of the Colegio San José de Jinotepe continued the Sandinista regime’s crackdown on the Catholic Church and its educational projects in a country where even the most mild dissent is not tolerated and priests must watch their words during Mass.
Four bishops have been exiled along with more than 250 priests, women religious and seminarians, according to Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer-in-exile, who tracks Church persecution in the country.
They are trying to punish a Church that has been sensitive, that has been close to people’s suffering
Arturo McFields
The regime has forced the closure of more than 5,000 nongovernment organisations, including Caritas chapters [Sunday Examiner, 25 August 2024] and Catholic universities. The Jesuit-run Central American University was seized by the government in 2023 after branding the school a “centre of terrorism” [Sunday Examiner, 27 August 2023].
“It’s a theft by the dictatorship from the citizens themselves,” Father Edwin Román, an exiled Nicaraguan priest in Miami, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “They’re not just being robbed of infrastructure, but also a comprehensive education and spiritual values.”
Murillo’s reference to the 2018 protests showed the regime’s ongoing revenge against the Catholic Church. Parishes and schools provided shelter for protesters being attacked by police and made space for them to receive medical treatment. The Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference also convened a national dialogue, but abandoned the process due to government disinterest.
“They are trying to punish a Church that has been sensitive, that has been close to people’s suffering,” Arturo McFields, a former Nicaraguan diplomat, said.
“This evangelising and humanitarian mission of the Church is being punished,” McFields said.
