Nicaragua is considering suspending relations with the Vatican, the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry said on Sunday (March 12th) after Pope Francis called the Central American country "a
crude dictatorship
".
"
Faced with information disseminated by sources linked to the Catholic Church, the government of reconciliation and national unity of our blessed and always free Nicaragua specifies that a suspension of diplomatic relations is envisaged between the Vatican State and the Republic of Nicaragua
,” the ministry said in a statement.
Read alsoDaniel Ortega's Nicaragua targets the Church
Pope Francis called President Daniel Ortega's regime a "
rough dictatorship
" on Friday in an interview with the Argentine daily
Infobae
.
"
With all due respect, I have no choice but to believe that this leader is suffering from an imbalance
," he said.
"
It's as if we wanted to establish the Communist dictatorship of 1917 or the Hitlerian one of 1935
", continued the pope, adding: "
These are crude dictatorships
".
"Mafia organized in the Vatican"
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had estimated at the end of February that a “
mafia
” within the Vatican decided on the election of the pope and senior religious leaders.
"
The people should elect the cardinals and there should be a vote among the Catholic people (...) so that the pope is also elected, by a direct vote of the people, so that it is the people who decide and not the
mafia that is organized there in the Vatican
,” said Daniel Ortega.
Read alsoIn Nicaragua, the relentless repression of President Ortega
This diatribe by the Nicaraguan president came more than a week after a statement by Pope Francis who said he was "
concerned
" and "
saddened
" by the situation in Nicaragua, in particular after the 26-year prison sentence of Bishop Rolando Álvarez. and the deportation of 222 opponents to the United States.
On February 9, the government of Daniel Ortega released 222 political prisoners, deported them to the United States and stripped them of their Nicaraguan nationality.
Bishop Rolando Álvarez, detained since August 2022, refused to be extradited and was sentenced the next day to 26 years in prison, including for "
conspiring and spreading false news
"