SW News: Recently freed political prisoners and human rights advocates testified about the continued persecution in Nicaragua in front of US Congress members on Wednesday. One of them said the regime was waging an unholy war against the Catholic Church.

Several Catholics, including a bishop and several priests, have recently been detained, imprisoned, and possibly tortured by Daniel Ortega's government in Nicaragua.

Furthermore, the Ortega administration has banned Catholic radio and television stations and expelled Catholic religious groups like the Missionaries of Charity from the nation.

Exiles from Nicaragua attended the hearing, which was held before members of two House subcommittees: the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and the Subcommittee on Global Health, Human Rights, and International Organizations, at the Rayburn Office Building on Capitol Hill.

Following the evidence, lawmakers such as Smith, Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Florida, and Rep. French Hill, R-Arkansas, asked witnesses about factors other than Ortega's repression and the best way for the United States to combat the persecution of the Ortega dictatorship. Salazar questioned Ortega's decision to specifically attack the Catholic Church.

Rossana Ramirez, a persecution analyst at Open Doors World Watch Research said: "Since April 2018, after a civil uprising that left hundreds dead, churches have continued to speak out in defense of those struggling against repression and censorship in the country. The government and its security forces have become the main drivers of persecution against Christians. Even the International Human Rights Commission has been urging the state authorities to guarantee the right of religious freedom and the safety of demonstrators."

On February 10, the Ortega regime sentenced Bishop Rolando Álvarez Lagos to 26 years and four months in prison for being a traitor to the homeland. Pope Francis denounced the detention of Alvarez and compared Ortega's government to Nazi Germany.

The Vatican's diplomatic mission in Nicaragua was forced to close last week, and the chargé d'affaires (ambassador), the only remaining representative of the Vatican, left the nation, formally severing diplomatic ties with the Church in the heavily Catholic nation. Archbishop Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, the apostolic nuncio for the Vatican, was expelled by Ortega a little more than a year ago.