Dictatorship in Nicaragua Freezes Bank Accounts of Catholic Priests

Managua, June 18.– On May 27, the Nicaraguan National Police published a statement in which it accused the Banco Central de NicaraguaCatholic Church of various crimes, including money laundering, a charge that would have no basis, according to human rights defenders.

The dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has ordered the bank accounts of several priests in some Nicaraguan dioceses to be frozen, according to the Nicaraguan lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Molina, the author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?”, reported that priests from dioceses such as Granada, Jinotega, León, Matagalpa, and Estelí had informed her “about their bank accounts being blocked” on June 14.

At first, some of them thought the system was down. They then went to the branch bank and [the bank] verbally notified them, without giving them any documentation, that their accounts had been suspended,” Molina said on June 15.
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