Nicaragua

The government of Nicaragua under President Daniel Ortega has continued a campaign since 2018 targeting religious institutions, most notably the Roman Catholic Church. Government forces and citizens sympathetic to the regime have routinely harassed Catholic clergy and worshippers. Catholic clergy have recently come under direct persecution; in June 2022, a judge sentenced a priest to over four years in prison on spurious charges and another priest was forced into house arrest in August 2022. Additionally, the government has taken harsher measures against Catholic-affiliated organizations such as shutting down charities and expelling their workers, stripping universities of funding and legal status, shutting down news media, and eliminating non-governmental organizations (NGOs).