MADRID 15 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United States Department of State announced this Thursday visa restrictions against more than 350 members of the Nicaraguan National Police (PNN), whom it accuses of carrying out “selective attacks against civil society” under the Administration of Daniel Ortega. and Rosario Murillo.
“These attacks have profoundly denied its people access to important services and the freedom to organize, express opinions and shape their future without fear of reprisal. The PNN’s actions weaken democratic processes and foster an environment in which “dissent or the perception of dissent is met with punitive, often brutal, measures rather than open dialogue and debate,” said department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Washington has “again” urged Ortega and Murillo to “stop the threats, harassment and unjust detention of defenders of civil society, freedoms of expression, religion or belief and association.” “Ortega and Murillo’s continued dismantling of civic space, including the revocation of the legal status of more than 5,500 NGOs, represses dissent and perpetuates fear and oppression in Nicaragua,” he lamented.
BANISHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE OF NICARAGUA
In fact, during the day the Nicaraguan authorities ordered the exile of the president of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua and bishop of the Diocese of Jinotega (north), Carlos Herrera. The Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) has expressed its “pain” with the “events that afflict the Church that is pilgrim in Nicaragua, and mainly the situation that several bishops and their dioceses are going through.”
“In a special way, today we are once again shocked by the news of the exile of Monsignor Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez (…). We sympathize with him and pray that this situation is resolved soon and he can return to his homeland,” reads a statement .
The bishop described the Sandinista mayor of that town, Leonidas Centeno, as “sacrilegious” for interrupting a mass. According to ecclesiastical sources consulted by the newspaper ‘La Prensa’, Herrera participated in a meeting with the bishops of the Episcopal Conference and was subsequently exiled to Guatemala.