Nicaragua shuts down Catholic radio station amid NGO ‘foreign agent’ crackdown News
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Nicaragua shuts down Catholic radio station amid NGO ‘foreign agent’ crackdown

Nicaragua on Tuesday ordered the closure and seizure of assets of Radio Maria, a Catholic radio station run by prominent government critic Bishop Rolando Alvarez. Alvarez was exiled to the Vatican after being released from house arrest on treason charges.

The decision by the interior ministry was announced via the government’s official gazette. Taking full effect, it deprives the radio and 12 other mostly religious NGOs of their legal personalities. It accuses Radio Maria of failing to report financial statements between the years 2019-2023. Radio Maria’s assets, however, had already been frozen since April, which barred it from receiving donations from its listeners.

The move mirrors the legal cancellation of hundreds of civil and religious associations by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. In 2022, the Nicaraguan government toughened laws on civil associations and NGOs by introducing a “Foreign Agent Bill,” which requires people or entities receiving funding or support from abroad to register as “foreign agents” with the Interior Ministry. The law also imposes bureaucratic duties on the organizations, designed in a way that makes real compliance impossible, according to one member of a dissolved NGO. Human Rights Watch Americas director José Miguel Vivanco said the bills appear designed to provide legal cover for the Ortega government to harass and prosecute journalists, rights groups, and other possible opposition.

Nicaragua’s leader introduced the policy as retaliation for the 2018 protests which he viewed as an attempted coup and supressed, leaving more than 300 dead in three months. Since churches and cathedrals offered refuge to protesters, and popular catholic leaders criticized the violent crackdown, the government has targeted the Catholic Church and clerics.

Nicaragua has seen the closures of about 3,600 NGOs since 2018. With ever fewer independent media outlets, the freedom of the press in the country is deteriorating, with Reporters without Borders ranking Nicaragua in 163rd place on its press freedom index for 2024.

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