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DIRIAMBA, Nicaragua – A crowd of supporters of the Nicaraguan government pushed, beat and scratched Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes and other Catholic leaders while they were trying to enter the Basilica of San Sebastián. "Murderers!" They shouted at them. An auxiliary bishop was stabbed in the arm with a sharp object.
The unpleasant scene in the town of Diriamba, an hour's drive south of the capital Managua, was a dramatic example of how quickly the turmoil tainted the relationship between the Catholic Church and besieged president Daniel Ortega.
The church played a mediating role between the Sandinista government of Ortega and the dissidents, who demanded his resignation amid protests and riots. Despite this, the institution is increasingly identified by Ortega and his followers, reviving the strong hostilities between the Sandinista base and the ecclesiastical hierarchy experienced in the 1980s. This seemed to have been overcome in recent years, when the commander of the guerrilla warfare had formed a kind of alliance with bishops who were once critical. icos with his movement
Brenes, archbishop of Managua, went to Diriamba on July 9, a day after talking with priests by phone and listened to shots and ambulances. He met doctors and nurses who were treating wounded protesters and now took refuge inside the basilica, surrounded by pro-government forces.
"They feared to enter the church to eliminate the group of people present. ", Said the parish priest, Cesar Alberto Castillo Rodriguez
Despite the unrest at the entrance, the delegation of Brenes, who was the highest representative of the Vatican in the country, was able to evacuate people from the temple
Two weeks later, and although there is a massive police presence, the church is covered with graffiti on behalf of the government
"My commander remains," it is said in reference in Ortega, while others contain vulgar insults They are signed with the acronym "JS", of Juventud Sandinista, a pro-government organization that acts as shock troops against the demonstrators.
basilica resumes its services but, as in many other parishes in Nicaragua, does not officiate at mass at night, when the police and pro-armed armed militia rule the streets.
"We realized that people were not coming, "said Brenes.
L & # 39; church, which is basically the last independent institution in which many Nicaraguans are confident that they are witnessing the turbulent changes of Ortega, who seems to have regained his position after the most serious challenge to his government in addition to A decade of power.
In April, the president asked: The Church intervenes in the peace talks. But the dialogue quickly collapsed when it became clear that it would not advance the elections scheduled for 2021.
Last week, Ortega accused the bishops of allying with the putschists and to allow the storage of weapons in churches. and he said that they were "disqualified" as mediators.
But days later he stepped back saying that he was expecting the institution to continue as a mediator and insisting that it was not going to happen. There is no government persecution. to be charming or intimidating, "said Henri Gooren, an anthropologist at the University of Oakland, Michigan, and publisher of the Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. "I think that he realized that the charm does not work (…) so all he can do now is try to intimidate them, try to subtract their credibility. "
By his verbal attacks, Ortega supporters in particular (for pro-government gangs), "They can go ahead and beat the priests and bishops and destroy the church buildings without punishment, "adds Gooren. defend the dialogue, the only option you see to end the violence. Although the discussion on Nicaragua's "democratization" did not materialize in Ortega's refusal to resign, the archbishop said that the negotiators had obtained help for the arrested protesters, the peaceful withdrawal of some barricades and the access of international observers such as In his opinion, without dialogue, there would have been even more deaths
The 69-year-old cardinal has a broad perspective because He has already experienced this.
In the courtyard of his modest home in Managua, Brenes recalled that decades ago, when he was a young priest, he sheltered young people who supported the Sandinista Front of Ortega while they were persecuted by the troops of the National Guard of the Somoza dictatorship
. In 1979, after being transferred to a parish in Jinotepe, armed Sandinista fighters resumed his church. One time, a sniper caught him in the parsonage with a wife and a little girl that he had measured inside. For three days, they hid under a sink and survived with cookies and a bag of pinol, a mixture of flour and cocoa powder that is taken with water or milk.
Later, in 1991, Brenes between the Sandinista army and the Contra rebels, backed by the United States, traveling in the Matagalpa Mountains and acting as an emissary between representatives of both parties, who even refused to s & # 39; approach.
After Ortega's speech, calling the Bishops Conspirators, Brenes said that he looked for the meaning of the word "Golpista" in the dictionary, but what he found was the antithesis of what he's trying to do.
"I read there:" someone who takes an action to take power … "Oh, well, it's not my turn." Ortega repeatedly comes up against to the conservative ecclesiastical authorities when the socialist Sandinistas reign in the 1980s, at a time when many leftist young priests openly supported the old guerrilla, which angered the pope of the time, Jean- Paul II
But Ortega worked to change his relationship with the Church after losing elections in the 1990s and, when he took over power in 2006, of piety and forged a friendship with the head of the institution in the country, the late Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo.
When the new wave of protests erupted in April _ caused by cuts in the social security system _ the forces The government and Sandinista youth reacted with force. [19659003OnApril20hundredsofstudentstookrefugeintheCathedralofManaguawherethechurchwascollectingdonationstohelpprotestersWhenthepoliceandtheSandinistagroupapproachedthemtheyoungpeoplebarricadedthemselvesinthetemplefromwhichtheyonlyleftwhentheclergyobtainedsecurityguarantees
Brenes and several other bishops publicly opposed the violence. dialogue. The Episcopal Conference then issued a harsher condemnation of the crackdown and urged the authorities to "listen to the cry of the young Nicaraguans."
The Vatican kept silent, referring to its usual diplomacy behind the scenes, while the local church manages the situation on the ground
The ambassador of Pope Francis in the country published last week a statement expressing "the deep concern (of the pontiff) about the grave situation."
The same day of the attack in Diriamba, Ortega's supporters ransacked the parish of Santiago Apóstol in Jinotepe, throwing the temple benches up the stairs screaming that the institution was harboring terrorists
The most distressing incident occurred in the Church of Jesus of Divine Mercy in Managua.
In the night of July 13 to July 14, supporters of the armed government fired on the temple for nearly 15 hours of 155 students expelled from a nearby university spread under the banks. One of them, who was shot in the head in a barricade on the outside, died on the floor of the presbytery.
Brenes is assured that they arrived safe and sound in the capital's cathedral.
Divine Mercy is still marked by hundreds of bullet holes. A small chapel behind the main shrine bore the brunt of the offensive: the bullets pierced a picture of Jesus Christ and bounced on the gold and silver box containing the sacrament .
On a Sunday, Nelly Harding, 56, a parishioner, wiped her tears when she left the temple. "If they do not respect the house of God, they do not respect the lives of helpless people, what can we expect?"
The parish priest, Erick Alvarado Cole, pointed out that the police had not investigated what happened and that the marks in the building will remain as they are.
"These holes in the walls, the Christ, the tabernacle and the windows will remain as a testimony of the pain of the Nicaraguan people," said the priest. "If it's repaired, it's like nothing is happening." (AP)
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