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Daniel Ortega's Regime Announces Money Laundering Investigation Against Catholic Church in Nicaragua

2023-05-29T13:12:07.412Z

Highlights: Police in the Central American country say they found "hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden in bags" in various dioceses. Ortega maintains a confrontation with the Catholic bishops, whom he accuses of having supported the 2018 protests. Police did not say whether this investigation is linked to the arrest of three Catholic priests since May 20, one of whom is being investigated for "committing acts that undermine the sovereignty, independence and self-determination" of the country. Last February he sentenced to 26 years in prison the bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez.


Police in the Central American country say they found "hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden in bags" in various dioceses. Ortega maintains a confrontation with the Catholic bishops, whom he accuses of having supported the 2018 protests.


By Gabriela Selser — AP

Nicaraguan police announced Saturday that they are conducting an investigation into the local Catholic Church for alleged illicit acts, "as part of a money laundering network" in the country, where three priests have been arrested in recent days.

The National Police said in a statement that it confirmed the discovery of "hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden in bags" in various Catholic dioceses of the country, and that it investigates alleged "criminal movements with funds that illegally entered the country."

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According to the report, the Attorney General's Office, the Superintendency of Banks and the Financial Analysis Unit of the Police have conducted investigations to "locate and cancel the illicit acts committed by people linked to the dioceses," which were not identified.

During the investigations, "the illegal theft of resources from bank accounts that had been ordered by law to freeze was confirmed," as well as "other illicit acts that are still being investigated as part of a money laundering network that has been discovered in dioceses of different departments" of the country, the statement said.

In addition, the police "initiated investigations that led to the discovery of hundreds of thousands of dollars, hidden in bags located in facilities belonging to dioceses of the country," he added.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, appear in a Sept. 5, 2018, file photo during a pro-government demonstration in Managua.

In addition, criminal movements of funds that have entered the country irregularly were confirmed, the authorities added, giving rise to prosecutions for all these crimes.

The Superintendency of Banks asked the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua and Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, archbishop of Managua, to present documents proving "the movements of the bank accounts of the dioceses," and demonstrate that they adhere to national laws and avoid the illicit acts that have been committed, police said.

The government of President Daniel Ortega maintains a confrontation with the Catholic Church, which it accuses of having supported the 2018 protests. Last February he sentenced to 26 years in prison the bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, who since then has been imprisoned in the Model Prison.

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In an apparent allusion to Bishop Álvarez, the police report indicated that this "anomalous situation derives from the acts of treason, already tried, and committed by characters who, as politicians, have criminally violated all the legal, financial, social, State and Nicaraguan people's systems."

Ortega has referred to Catholic bishops as "politicians." He has also called them "coup plotters," "criminals" and "demons in cassocks." Last March, he put relations with the Vatican on "hold" after Pope Francis called the Sandinista government a "Hitlerian dictatorship."

A year earlier, in March 2022, Ortega had expelled from the country the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Sommertag, who on several occasions expressed his willingness to mediate for the release of "political prisoners."

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Police did not say whether this investigation is linked to the arrest of three Catholic priests since May 20, one of whom is being investigated for "committing acts that undermine the sovereignty, independence and self-determination" of the country.

The priests arrested are Eugenio Rodríguez, pastor of the Divina Providencia church in the northern town of Jalapa, who was arrested on May 20; Leonardo Guevara, parish priest of the Cathedral of Estelí, captured two days later; and Jaime Iván Montesinos, pastor of the John Paul II Church in the municipality of Sébaco, located in the northern department of Matagalpa, arrested last Thursday.

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According to the Diocese of Estelí, the first two are being held in a Catholic Church premises in Managua under police control while they are investigated for "administrative matters of the defunct Caritas Diocesana de Estelí," a Catholic NGO closed in 2022.

The social revolts of 2018 in Nicaragua were repressed by police and paramilitaries loyal to the government, whose actions left at least 355 dead, 2,000 injured and more than 100,000 exiled, according to humanitarian organizations.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2023-05-29

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