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“The persecution of those who do not agree with the government is something
negative: we must reduce the tone in some way so that the nation can achieve a
genuine normality”. Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua and
President of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua expressed these thoughts,
referring to the repression imposed by Daniel Ortega”s government which has caused more than 400 deaths since last April. In several statements released by the daily “El Nuevo Diario”, Brenes spoke of a contrived “tense
normality”, recalling that only through dialogue can a solution to the crisis be found.
In another interview with “La Croix”, the cardinal recalled that the Church”s role is to defend the weakest: “Our mission is service to
humanity; we crossed the barricades to rescue the injured, among whom were military and police”. The president must “listen to what a large part of the population wants”. The bishops” conference “asks to remain on the scene with the Constitution. We cannot support a coup d”etat. Sunday, 29 July I reminded the laity from the pulpit that it is their responsibility to give direction to
the nation and to carry out social and political action”. In the same interview, the cardinal described the current state of dialogue in the nation. “Dialogue consists of two commissions: one that regards checks and security which deals with crimes, the injured and dispersed, and which continues to
carry out its work; and a second, democratization, which is suspended.
Nonetheless, I believe that the government is sensitive to our requests to begin again the dialogue that was launched in the demonstration to support the bishops on 28 July”.
