Reported by Walter Sanchez Silva/ACI Prensa/CNA

Matagalpa, Nicaragua

The Nicaraguan National Police, controlled by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, published a statement May 27 accusing the Catholic Church of various crimes such as money laundering, a baseless charge, according to human-rights defenders.

The statement says that the police conducted “investigations that led to the discovery of hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden in bags located in facilities belonging to the dioceses in the country,” such as Matagalpa and Estelí.

The text also indicates that the investigations “confirmed the illegal withdrawal of funds from bank accounts that had been ordered by law to be frozen, as well as other illegal acts that are still being investigated as part of a money-laundering network that has been discovered in dioceses of different departments [administrative districts].”

The day before, according to what was reported by various media outlets, the regime had ordered the accounts of the country’s dioceses and parishes to be frozen.

The government communiqué states that the attorney general’s office, the Superintendency of Banks, and the financial analysis unit — organizations controlled by the regime — “have confirmed the criminal movement of funds that, for the dioceses, have entered the country irregularly and which are being investigated and proceedings have been opened for all these crimes.”

The text also indicates that the Superintendency of Banks has requested that the bishops’ conference and the archbishop of Managua, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, present the documents that show the bank-account transactions of the dioceses “so that at all times the laws of the country are complied with, avoiding the illegal acts that have been committed.”

In a May 29 statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Félix Maradiaga, former presidential candidate and exiled human-rights defender, stated that “it’s impossible for the police to have found this alleged illicit money in the Diocese of Matagalpa, because that diocese has been, both the chancery and many of the parishes, under police intervention during the last six months.”

“That’s absolutely unacceptable, but it is also Orwellian. It’s ridiculous that the same chancery from which Bishop Rolando Álvarez was taken away is now designated as the locus of illegal acts,” said Maradiaga, who was deported to the United States on Feb. 9 along with more than 200 other former political prisoners.

Bishop Álvarez of Matagalpa was held under house arrest by the regime for months before being unjustly sentenced Feb. 10 to 26 years and four months in prison.

Maradiaga stressed that with the accusations of the police against the Church, “the regime is using totally disproportionate arguments to dismantle the presence of the dioceses, especially that of Matagalpa and Estelí.”

Read full report: https://www.ncregister.com/cna/dictatorship-in-nicaragua-accuses-catholic-church-of-money-laundering?amp