8/30/2024 Nicaragua (International Christian Concern) — Nicaraguan lawmakers recently removed various tax exemptions from churches, subjecting them to pay taxes on tithes and offerings received from individuals.
Religious institutions will now become part of the “general tax regime,” according to local newspaper La Prensa, and pay between 10 and 30 percent income tax on tithes. The move forces churches to reassess operations and is likely to sharply stifle their activities.
The day after the government passed the tax legislation, it closed 1,500 nongovernmental organizations, 678 of which were organizations tied to the Catholic church and evangelical Christian denominations. The regime claimed the organizations didn’t properly document their financial reports. This is an allegation the government has used many times in the past.
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Liz Throssell condemned the closures the same day they were announced.
“The severe impact of these measures on the rights to freedom of association and expression, as well as freedom of religion, makes the defense of human rights increasingly difficult in Nicaragua,” Throssell stated. “We once again call on the Nicaraguan authorities to stop imposing severe restrictions on civic and democratic spaces…, and to ensure that human rights are respected, in line with Nicaragua’s international human rights obligations.”
The authoritarian regime of Nicaragua, run by President Daniel Ortega, has been targeting churches for years and began tightening its grip on the nation in 2018. In April of that year, deadly riots broke out against a government proposal to reduce social security benefits. As many as 355 individuals reportedly perished in the ongoing protests.
The Ortega regime has made a particular point of targeting the Catholic church, having ousted nearly 250 nuns and clergy since 2018, including three high-ranking bishops. The government previously closed a Jesuit university and have decimated the number of Catholic clergy.
Since the protests, many religious institutions and clergy have spoken out against the Ortega regime for alleged human rights abuses. As a result, they have become government targets. Catholic priests have been exiled to Rome, Christians have been arrested, and Christian organizations have been shuttered.
Félix Navarrete, a Catholic clergyman and attorney, explained that the Nicaraguan government is threatened by leaders in the church.
“One of the government’s biggest fears is that through religious leaders, the people of Nicaragua can have change,” Navarrete stated. “They are trying to avoid that at all costs.”
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