Nicaragua arrests bishop critical of government

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/nicaraguan-police-detain-catholic-bishop-other-priests-in-raid

Nicaraguan police on Friday raided the residence of a Roman Catholic bishop critical of President Daniel Ortega’s administration, detaining him and several other priests in a dramatic escalation of tensions between the church and a government increasingly intolerant of dissent.

The pre-dawn raid came after Nicaraguan authorities had accused Matagalpa Bishop Rolando Álvarez of “organizing violent groups” and inciting them “to carry out acts of hate against the population.”

[CumbrianLefty]

Ortega has now become what the US accused him of being in the 1980s, maybe worse actually.

[Coldstream]

This is always what Ortega was. He abandoned Communism for Religious Conservative populism when it no longer suited him. He - barely - stood down because he had no choice and then spent decades increasing the Sandinistas control over the apparatus of the state: courts, civil service, police etc so that when he came back to power he’d never have to back down again. Once he came back he strangled Nicaragua’s democracy in a way that’d have made the Somoza’s proud.

He’s a vicious anti-Semite who is credibly accused of raping at least two teenagers and had caused thousands of untold deaths in Nicaragua with his mishandling of the covid pandemic and repression of peaceful protesters. No one claiming to be progressive should support him.

[dead0man]

see, Reagan wasn't always wrong.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

see, Reagan wasn't always wrong.

Reagan was still wrong on this. At the time Ortega was nowhere near as bad as he was today (he was probably personally a bad guy especially since he was likely a rapist and sexual predator even back then he was much more democratic than what preceded him) and tried to oust him by illegally selling weapons to Iran (bad) and funding gangs of deranged abusive rapists and murderers with the funds (also bad.) Remember what ousted Ortega is that he simply lost re-election in 1990 and his initial 1984 election was considered free and fair by all international observers.

Today though Ortega is simply monstrous and there's no excuses for him.