Christian Persecution Ramps Up in Latin American Country

A new report from the United Nations revealed that persecution from the Nicaraguan government toward Christians is increasing.

The United Nations’ Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua found that the Latin American nation’s government is responsible for “serious, systematic and widespread human rights violations — some amounting to crimes against humanity.”

A report from the entity, published last month, noted that they have “documented how the profile of victims has further widened” since 2023 as the government deems more groups as threats to their power.

That includes “university students, faculty and staff, campesinos, Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent, and members of the Catholic and other Christian churches.”

International Christian Concern noted that just days after the United Nations report was released, Nicaragua banned the ordination of Roman Catholic priests in the dioceses of “Jinotega, Siuna, Matagalpa, and Estelí.”

Those regions currently do not have bishops because of the persecution.

Nearly three-quarters of Roman Catholic clergy in Matagalpa have been pushed into exile.

International Christian Concern explained that the government has “aggressively targeted the Catholic church in Nicaragua since 2019, when some churches decided to shelter student protestors from police brutality.”

The government has also threatened to penalize family members, friends, and parishioners of exiled Christian and Roman Catholic leaders if they speak against the oppression in the United States or elsewhere in the world.

Christians have similarly faced the “arbitrary deprivation of nationality” on political grounds.

The United Nations entity called for “ceasing the persecution of members of the Catholic and other Christian churches, ensuring full respect for the right to freedom of religion.”

The repression comes even as a decisive majority of the Nicaraguan population identifies with the Christian faith.

As of 2005, the population was 59 percent Roman Catholic and 22 percent evangelical Protestant, according to a report from the U.S. State Department.

But more recent data indicated that evangelical Protestantism had increased to 38 percent and Roman Catholicism had declined to 41 percent as of 2022.

The Nicaraguan government withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council in February 2025, per International Christian Concern.

That move came shortly after United Nations officials “released a strongly worded report rebuking it for systematically cracking down on human rights, democratic norms, and religious groups.”

Nicaragua is currently on the U.S. State Department’s Countries of Particular Concern list for religious freedom violations.

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