Nicaragua asked the Vatican to close its diplomatic headquarters

Nicaragua submitted a request Holy Chair for the closure of the respective diplomatic headquarters, although there is still no break in diplomatic relations, Vatican sources told EFE today.

The request was for the closure of both nunciatures, Vatican representations in the president’s country Daniel Ortegaand the Embassy of Nicaragua to the Holy See, they specified.

Although that would be the first step towards the complete termination of diplomatic relationswhich hasn’t happened yet.

The decision taken by Ortega should follow the publication of an interview on the Argentinian portal Infobae in which the Pope described Ortega’s regime in Nicaragua as a “brutal dictatorship”.

This is a month after the conviction Rolando Alvarezbishop of the diocese of Matagalpa to 26 years and 4 months in prison, according to an interview published on Friday.

“It is something that is beyond what we experience, it is like bringing a communist dictatorship in 1917 or Hitler’s in 1935, bringing the same here… They are a kind of harsh dictatorship. Or, to use a nice distinction from Argentina, guarangas”Francisco said in that interview.

Nicaragua has been without an ambassador to the Holy See since September 21, 2021, when Ortega canceled the appointment Elliette Ortega Sotomayory There is only one minister advisor.

Also, in March of last year, Government of Nicaragua he also expelled the apostolic nuncio Monsignor Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag.

Monsignor Mbaye Diouf, Secretary of the Nunciature, he is in charge of the Vatican diplomatic mission in Managua.

On February 21, the president A Nicaraguan man described the Church as a “mafia” and accused it of being undemocratic because it does not allow Catholics to elect the pope, cardinals, bishops and priests by direct vote.