SW News: Six Jesuits were forced out of their Managua home by the police and prosecutors of the dictatorship in Nicaragua despite having ownership documentation. This was condemned on Saturday by the Central American Province of the Society of Jesus.

The Nicaraguan police appeared with members of the judiciary at the Jesuit residence to demand their eviction from Villa Carmen residence near the Central American University on August 19. The members of the religious community showed the deeds of the property. However, the agents ignored the documentation and ordered the Jesuits to leave the place.

In the meantime, the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Nicaragua had its name abruptly changed by the regime. The college's name has been changed to Universidad Nacional Casimiro Sotelo Montenegro to honor the Sandinista student leader who was murdered in 1967.

“Sotelo was not a hero, he was expelled from the UCA, he was a friend of Daniel Ortega, and he shared his ideas. He was a young man who wanted a Nicaragua that freed itself from the Somoza dictatorship through death and violence,” said Arturo McFields Yescas, Nicaragua's former ambassador to the Organization of American States.

Sotelo dreamt of a free Nicaragua but he believed that guns were the only way to bring about change in Nicaragua. He and three other activists were arrested on November 4, 1967, in Managua's Monseor Lezcano district. Later, a colonel of the Somocista Guard killed him.

On the evening of August 17, videos that went viral on social media showed a group of men removing the initials UCA from the building's facade, which had housed the most prestigious private university in the nation.

National and international opposition was shown to the confiscation of all the assets of the UCA, which had been formed by the Jesuits in 1960. The church has been exposed to intimidation and repression ever since the anti-government rallies in 2018, and the university's shutdown, which denies more than 9,500 students access to study, is the most recent instance.