Amid Catholic Crackdown, Nicaragua Closes 250 Evangelical Ministries
Mountain Gateway became the latest Christian ministry to run afoul of the Ortega regime.
When Hurricanes Hilary and Idalia flooded Nicaragua’s coast last August and September, evangelical ministries in the country had little choice but to step up and serve.
President Daniel Ortega and his wife, vice president Rosario Murillo, had expelled the Red Cross from their country last July after the organization had criticized the country for its inhuman treatment of prisoners. The departure had left a gap in humanitarian aid for the country.
One of those Christians organizations was Mountain Gateway. The American missions and development agency was one of many that helped organize a major evangelism and relief event, where pastors and church leaders shared the gospel as thousands of families received food, clothing, and medicine.
The event, called Buenas Nuevas Nicaragua (Good News Nicaragua), united more than 1,300 evangelical churches from 13 of Nicaragua’s 15 regions in a massive two-day evangelistic event in the capital, Managua, last November. Local news estimated that up to 300,000 people attended the gathering, and despite ongoing tensions between the Ortega administration and churches, a pro-government publication even highlighted the event.
But the gathering’s success in sharing spiritual encouragement and provisions ultimately had little effect on softening the government’s latest crusade against Christian ministries.
Since 2018, the Ortega administration has imprisoned and exiled Catholic priests who have criticized the regime. But as the population of Nicaraguan evangelicals has grown, so has persecution of the evangelical church. A report recently published by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) registered 310 severe violations of freedom of religion or belief between November 2022 and …