CV NEWS FEED // Nicaragua’s Ministry of the Interior (MINT) has shut down and seized the assets of Caritas Diocesan Association of Matagalpa, one of Nicaragua’s eight branches of Caritas, in addition to 14 other non-governmental organizations.
Caritas de Matagalpa is part of Caritas Internationalis, the international umbrella organization to which both Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services in the United States belong.
Vatican News quotes Caritas de Matagalpa’s social pages to explain their mission, which said that they are dedicated to “the development of the most remote communities in the Matagalpa department, giving priority to the poorest segments of the population and those lacking basic infrastructure: health and education.”
Minister of the Interior María Amelia Coronel approved the legal dissolution of Caritas de Matagalpa on Aug. 12, citing Caritas’s “non-compliance” in submitting its financial statements for 2023, Vatican News reports.
All of Caritas de Matagalpa’s real and movable assets will go to the State of Nicaragua.
Since December 2018, Vatican News reports, Nicaragua has shut down more than 3,600 non-governmental organizations. Most of the assets have gone to the states.
The article also mentioned allegations of a police operation in the Diocese of Matagalpa, where police dressed in civilian clothes entered the church, seized staff, and threatened to expel the clergy from Nicaragua.
Nicaraguan police arrested 12 priests in Matagalpa on Aug. 4, as CatholicVote previously reported. Over 70% of Matagalpa’s priests have been forced out of Nicaragua.
