Ortega accuses the Catholic Church of inciting bloodshed during the 2018 protests in Nicaragua

MADRID, 20 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, has charged this Tuesday against the Catholic Church and has assured that some priests called for bloodshed during the wave of protests of 2018, which resulted in the death of more than 300 people.

"The attacks were in different quarters every day and they came from some temples, not from all, but from some where the Pharisees were, the whitewashed ones," he explained, referring to the protests, adding that some priests manipulated the saints " to call for bloodshed."

Ortega thus argued during a graduation ceremony at the Walter Mendoza Police Academy that Police General Ramón Avellán, in charge of suppressing the demonstrations against the Ortega government, was "a hero" in the face of attacks by "terrorists ", according to the newspaper 'La Prensa'.

"Look, the leadership of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, the bishops, they were all Somocistas. They preached Somocism, in the name of God they sanctified Somocism: yes, they were Somocistas, and the greatest shame," he stressed during his speech.

Ortega, who keeps at least ten priests in jail, in addition to Bishop Rolando Álvarez, previously called the Church a "perfect dictatorship" and "used" its bishops to "launch a coup" in the Central American country.

"For everything we know about that terrible history, but also for the fact that we hear them talk about democracy and they do not practice democracy," Ortega valued, after which he pointed out that "the Holy Catholic Church" burned, killed, incinerated, persecuted and organized crusades "to assassinate those who did not share his creed."