Ortega Shatters Close Relationship with Evangelical Sects
Other evangelical groups “are fearful of what’s happened with that congregation and disagree with the accusations of the dictatorship,” says Attorney Martha Patricia Molina.
By La Prensa
HAVANA TIMES – The hitherto close relationship that evangelical Protestant leaders enjoyed with the Ortega regime has begun to shatter.
Over the course of several years, the official media have highlighted many different scenes of Nicaraguan pastors, public employees, and even the children of Ortega himself, participating in large events, revivals and concerts of the evangelical Protestant churches.
On March 29, 2023, the media filmed the scene in the protocol reception salon of Managua’s Augusto C. Sandino Airport, where an ostentatious welcome was given to missionary John Britton Hancock of the Mountain Gateway Ministry [known in Spanish as Ministerio Puerta de la Montaña] who was arriving to participate in the third Good News Evangelizing Crusade for Nicaragua.
On November 9, the government website El 19 digital rejoiced that the Mountain Gateway Ministry and its Managua pastoral team were preparing for “two great nights of praise, to mark the closing of their Good News for Nicaragua Crusades 2023.”
Nonetheless, just 41 days after this publicity, the Ortega-Murillo regime’s National Police announced the detention of 11 members of the Mountain Gateway evangelical organization and accused them of money laundering.
According to the accusation presented by the police, US citizens John Britton Hancock, president of Mountain Gateways, and Jacob Britton Hancock, a member of this organization, first came to Nicaragua in 2013 with financing from fellow countryman Bruce Wagner, owner of an aviation company and head of the Shaking the Nations evangelical mission based in the United States. The Police now claim their real goal was “bringing money into our country in order to obtain more money, real estate and properties, and to do business.”
In the organization’s last massive events on November 10 and 11, a number of high functionaries in the Ortega-Murillo regime participated, among them Managua mayor Reyna Rueda; the consulting minister on educational affairs Salvador Vanegas, and then-Minister of Education Lilliam Herrera. Public transport was nearly paralyzed on those days, since Ortega ordered a large number of buses to be diverted to transporting people to the Evangelizing Crusade.
Martha Patricia Molina is a researcher and specialist in topics of corruption and the Rule of Law; she’s also the author of a study on the violations of religious freedom in Nicaragua. In her view, the laws regarding money laundering in Nicaragua “are being incorrectly applied, and the Financial Action Task Force is instead rewarding the dictatorship for the indiscriminate persecution of innocent people and institutions.” The task force she refers to, known as the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America or Gafilat, is an intergovernmental organization with a regional base, created to prevent and combat money and asset laundering.
Molina also mentioned that Nicaragua’s Police, the body charged with announcing the supposed crimes, “isn’t a credible institution and isn’t at the service of the people, but of two criminals [referring to dictators Ortega and Murillo]. Hence, all their actions and the communications they issue are questionable. Moreover, they utilize the anti-money laundering laws to criminalize innocents.”
Frightened
According to Molina, from the moment that the case of the 11 jailed mission members under investigation was made public, a number of evangelical groups met to analyze the issue.
“They’re frightened by what happened with this congregation, and are in disagreement with the dictatorship’s accusations,” she sustained.
Up to the moment, the reasons behind the sudden rupture haven’t been clarified, “because the Protestant groups have had a good relationship with the dictatorship and the Police. I don’t know the why’s of this unexpected rupture.”
The Police claim that the accused: “introduced money into our country under the façade of the US-based Christian organizations Shaking the Nations and Mountain Gateway, the latter with a branch in Nicaragua. Their supposed objective was to create Christian disciples, bringing in rural residents, and those in the country’s North, some of whom they designated as evangelical pastors with the goal of making people believe they were organizations that helped the Nicaraguan people by bringing the work of God. But actually, they dedicated themselves to acquiring vehicles, farms, homes, and doing business.”
According to the Police report, John Britton Hancock and Jacob Britton Hancock registered the organization in Nicaragua and designated Walner Omier Blandon as their legal representative, and his wife, Marisela de Fatima Mejia as financial manager. Bruce Wagner, according to the accusation, deposited money into the personal bank accounts of Walner Blandon and Marisela Mejia.
“These bank accounts were later blocked due to the large amount of money they were receiving, without justifying its origin and use. For that reason, they then created the societies known as Blandon Hancock Operations S.A., Vertical Bridge Works, Conexion Vertical, and Puente Plomo,” states the police report.
A pattern of aggression
The fourth edition of the report authored by Martha Molina, Nicaragua: a persecuted Church? Documents around 50 aggressive acts perpetrated by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in the last two years and directed at the Evangelical Churches,
The attacks included the closure of different NGOs run by the evangelical groups, the harassment and repression of evangelical pastors or their families, confiscations of buildings, and over twenty Evangelical pastors who have gone into exile.
In the period since the political crisis began in 2018, 70 acts of aggression have been documented – 49 of them in the last 2 years. In other words, the last two years have seen a 70% increase in attacks.
The report emphasizes that seven buildings and projects of the Evangelical churches have been closed and their properties confiscated. At least 8 Christian media outlets and universities have been shuttered. Some Christian activities have faced barriers, and there’s been some harassment of the Evangelical temples.
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