The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, has charged Tuesday against the Catholic Church and has assured that some priests were making calls for bloodshed during the wave of protests in 2018, which resulted in the deaths of more than 300 people.
«The attacks were in different quarters every day and came from some temples, not from all, but from some where the Pharisees were, the whitewashed,» he has explained, referring to the protests, adding that some priests manipulated the saints «to call for bloodshed.»
Ortega argued during a graduation ceremony at the Walter Mendoza Police Academy that Police General Ramón Avellán, in charge of repressing the demonstrations against the Ortega government, was «a hero» in the face of the attacks of «the terrorists», as reported by the newspaper ‘La Prensa’.
«Notice, the leadership of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, the bishops, they were all Somocistas. They preached Somocismo, in the name of God they sanctified Somocismo: yes, they were Somocistas, and the greatest shame,» he stressed during his speech.
Ortega, who has imprisoned at least ten priests, in addition to Bishop Rolando Alvarez, previously branded the Church as a «perfect dictatorship» and of «using» its bishops to «carry out a coup d’état» in the Central American country.
«For all that we know of that terrible history, but also for the fact that we hear them talk about democracy and they do not practice democracy», Ortega said, after which he pointed out that «the Holy Catholic Church» burned, killed, incinerated, persecuted and organized crusades «to murder those who did not share their creed».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)