Nicaragua’s government seized the best university in the country from the Catholic Church, falsely accusing the University of Central America of “terrorism.” This attack is the latest salvo in its ongoing campaign against the Church.
Daniel Ortega’s left-wing dictatorship also evicted six Jesuit priests who teach at the university from a residence adjacent to the university, according to an August 22 report in the National Catholic Register. The residence belonged to the Jesuit order and not the university.
Ortega’s government took over the University of Central America two weeks ago, and changed its name to “Casimiro Sotelo Montenegro National University,” in honor of an assassinated student leader of the Sandinistas, a Marxist-Leninist group tied to the government.
The university canceled classes after a criminal court transferred the university’s property and money to the government, Al Jazeera reported. The takeover was Ortega’s “latest effort to lash out at the Catholic Church,” Al Jazeera notes. The university had been accused of being “a center of terrorism organized by criminal groups.”
Professors, religious leaders and the United Nations have criticized the seizure. “The university with the highest academic quality in the country has been liquidated,” said historian and alumna Dora María Téllez.
“The unjust and illegal confiscation of the UCA by the Sandinista dictatorship is outrageous,” said exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Silvio Jose Baez. “In this way, they demonstrate their contempt for intellectual freedom, quality education and critical thinking. Every day, they sink deeper into their irrationality, their wickedness and their fear.”
The United Nations lamented the seizure in a tweet, saying it undermined “the right to education, which is essential for the fulfillment of other human rights.”
