Thousands of Nicaraguans celebrated Holy Week in church atriums and interiors on Friday as the government maintained a ban on street processions that the United States has criticized as a violation of religious freedoms.
Nicaragua’s leader, Daniel Ortega, and his co-president wife Rosario Murillo have forbidden public demonstrations, including religious processions, over the past four years.
“Once again this year, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship is denying the people of Nicaragua the right to profess their faith… by banning such public processions,” US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X on Wednesday.
“I look forward to the day when our Nicaraguan friends reclaim their religious freedom,” Landau said.
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The Ortega-Murillo government said in response it “categorically rejects the perverse and false accusations” from Washington.
Worshippers who attended Friday’s religious celebrations in Managua told AFP by phone that the Stations of the Cross were held in the gardens of a plaza inside the cathedral walls, while under police surveillance.
Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes estimated that more than 25,000 people had gathered in the cathedral plaza, according to pro-government media.
Murillo said on Friday that the outpouring from the faithful in churches contradicted those who “distort” the situation.
Ortega and Murillo consider anti-government protests in 2018 as a US-backed coup attempt and accuse the Catholic Church of backing the demonstrations.
More than 300 people were killed when authorities cracked down on the protests, according to a United Nations estimate, while hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans — including Catholic priests, politicians, students and journalists — were sent into exile.
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