Brian Nichols, State Department’s senior Latin America official claims: “The confiscation of the Central American University, a symbol of academic excellence and hope for the future of Nicaragua, represents a major erosion of democratic norms and the closing of civic space.” The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also condemned the seizure of the university. Below we present more background on the now renamed Universidad Nacional Casimiro Sotelo Montenegro.
Religion in Nicaragua and the role of the Catholic Church Stephen Sefton answers Michael Fox’s questions about the role of the Catholic Church and Christianity in Nicaragua and how it has changed over the years. Sefton goes into the relatively unique and generally progressive nature of Evangelicals in Nicaragua. He addresses what has led up to the government taking over the Jesuit Central American University (UCA), now making it a public university.
The Central American University was the CIA’s Main Tool in Nicaragua In this piece from Radio Primerisima, Margine Gutierrez offers additional comments. After being co-opted by the gringos, whose funding removed any professors who questioned the system only to replace them with agents of the US, the UCA began to align itself with and serve the US plans of aggression against Nicaragua. In 2018 it openly became their main center of operations in the country. Once La Prensa newspaper was dismantled, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference was prevented from serving US interests, and the NGOs that acted as agents of imperialism were closed, the UCA was the CIA’s main tool for continuing and expanding its aggression against Nicaragua.
The now defunct UCA [Central American University] in Nicaragua German Van de Velde provides further historical detail.Starting in 2007, UCA begin to operate as the ideological center of the counterrevolution. It promoted the creation of digital battle fronts, used as platforms to spread fake news throughout the country and establish opinion narratives against the Sandinista government. These facilities were used to prepare “leadership” courses and certificate programs funded by USAID and the NED, which trained the misnamed “student leaders” who were key players during the attempted coup. The attempted coup of 2018 was incubated on the UCA campus, which served as the barracks and command post of the coup plotters. Moreover, as of 2020, it ceased filing the financial reports required by the government of all nonprofit institutions, and its Board of Directors expired in March 2022. On August 16, 2023 UCA was taken over and declared a free public university, now called Casimiro Sotelo Public University in honor of the student leader who took the message of revolution to young people at the Central American University in the 1960s.
Becca Renk: The Catholic Church and Nicaragua This article not only explains the right wing role of the Catholic Church hierarchy in attempting to undermine the Sandinista movement, but highlights the flourishing role of the popular church in the country.
Events
September 5: Nicaragua: Truth Versus Lies Organized by the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group. John Perry; Abigail Espinoza Muñoz, active FSLN member, former councillor in Masaya; Roger McKenzie, International Editor, Morning Star.
September 24: Next Nicaragua Webinar on the Nicaraguan community policing model. 3 PM Eastern time. Mark your calendars! More information coming soon.
Upcoming Delegations to Nicaragua
Casa Ben Linder delegations in October, January, and February
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Valuable Resources from Our Members & Partners: Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group, Friends of the ATC Nicaragua