Religious rights violations jump in Nicaragua
By Edward Ross - Posted at Christian Daily International:
Published April 9, 2026
Cases of religious rights violations in Nicaragua in 2025 jumped to 309, up from 222 documented in the prior year, a new report by a Christian advocacy group shows.The rights violations include arbitrarily detaining religious leaders, monitoring activities inside religious buildings, prohibiting public religious activities and canceling the legal status of hundreds of civil society organizations, including religious institutions, according to the report by U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
“While in some ways the regime has changed its strategies – releasing political prisoners into house arrest as opposed to forcing them into exile, for example – its primary goal remains the same: to control, coopt or eliminate anyone it deems a threat to its authority and survival,” CSW Director of Advocacy and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl said.
Violations included the arrest of Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas, founder of La Roca de Nicaragua Church Association in Jinotepe, Carazo Department, whom the government has targeted since 2018 after he spoke out against violence by authorities against peaceful protesters and affirmed that he was praying for students involved in demonstrations. On July 17 he was arbitrarily detained along others, according to the report, entitled, “No Respite: Another Year of Increasing Repression in Nicaragua.”
