A demonstrator holds a crucifix during a protest against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government in Managua May 15, 2018. (OSV News photo/Oswaldo Rivas, Reuters) Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva cut the diplomatic ties between the two countries with the mutual expulsion of their ambassadors to Managua and Brasilia, carried out over the past week.
Long-time allies who take part in international left-wing organisations like the São Paulo Forum – that gather Latin American progressive and socialist parties – Ortega and Lula had been freezing the relations between their nations over the past few months, after the Nicaraguan leader refused to talk to the Brazilian president about the persecution of priests in the Central American state.
According to a story published in April by Brazilian newspaper O Globo, Pope Francis and other high-ranking Church officials like Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, had been asking Lula to mediate the crisis with Ortega. The subject was discussed during Lula’s visit to Rome in June of 2023, and on other occasions through phone calls and letters.
This gained special relevance after Bishop Rolando Alvarez of Matagalpa was detained in August of 2022. He was kept under custody with no charges for over 100 days, until he was formally accused of conspiracy and remained in prison until January of 2024, when he and other clergy members were released and sent to the Vatican.
Bishop Alvarez, like other priests and bishops, publicly criticised the government’s wrongdoings. He condemned Ortega’s regime for the brutal repression during the 2018 wave of protests, when thousands of Nicaraguans – many of them young – took to the streets and staged large demonstrations against the Sandinista administration.
During Bishop Alvarez’s time in prison, Lula attempted to discuss the issue with Ortega, apparently during a visit of Parolin to Brazil. But the Nicaraguan leader did not even answer the phone. The Brazilian leader then ordered the ambassador in Managua to avoid taking part in several public events, including the July 18 Sandinista Revolution. Ortega allegedly became enraged with the Brazilian diplomat’s attitude and then decided to expel him.
In 2023, 151 priests and 76 sisters were expelled from the country – and the number continues to grow.