Prince Albert II of Monaco in 2025. / Credit: VALERY HACHE/Getty Images

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 25, 2025 / 17:01 pm (CNA).

Prince Albert II of Monaco has announced that he will not sign into law a bill that aims to relax the conditions for accessing abortion in the European microstate.

The monarch confirmed his rejection of the new bill — passed by the National Council by a margin of 19-2 last May — during an interview given to the Monaco-Matin newspaper on Nov. 18 on the occasion of the holiday celebrating the principality’s nationhood.

The legislative proposal aimed to authorize abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy and up to 16 weeks in cases of rape, and to lower the minimum age for waiving parental consent from 18 to 15 years old.

While he said he understands “the sensitivity of this issue,” the monarch pointed out that the current legal framework “respects our identity and the place that the Catholic religion occupies in our country, while simultaneously guaranteeing safe and more humane support.”

Consequently, Monaco will maintain its current abortion legislation. Although the practice was decriminalized in 2019, it remains formally illegal and is only permitted in three exceptional circumstances established by the 2009 law: rape, a life-threatening risk to the mother, and severe fetal malformations.

The principality’s constitution recognizes the Catholic religion as the state religion, and currently more than 90% of the population identifies as Catholic.

Furthermore, the constitution stipulates that executive power is exercised jointly by the prince and the Parliament, meaning the monarch must sign bills into law for them to take effect.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Holy Name Cathedral, the seat of the Archdiocese of Chicago. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Maddy Johnson/Church Properties Initiative

CNA Staff, Nov 25, 2025 / 16:31 pm (CNA).

Multiple lawsuits allege that the Archdiocese of Chicago kept two priests in active ministry in spite of years of “mounting complaints” of child sexual abuse leveled against them.

The suits, filed by the Chicago-based law firm Gould, Grieco, & Hensley, allege that archdiocesan officials allowed Father Daniel Holihan and Father John Curran to continue ministry “even after Church officials were aware of their history abusing children.”

The suits were filed on behalf of students from two archdiocesan schools, Quigley Preparatory Seminary and St. Christina Catholic School. Holihan is alleged to have abused a male student at the now-closed preparatory seminary during the 1980s, while Curran allegedly abused two students at St. Christina around the same time.

The law firm claims the archdiocese had been warned about both Holihan and Curran as early as the 1960s. The alleged abuse victims said they were unaware of the archdiocese’s alleged prior knowledge until recently, when “previously concealed internal documents became accessible.”

The law firm alleged that the archdiocese “relied on a pattern of relocating clergy with known problems rather than addressing the underlying misconduct.”

“For decades, the archdiocese relied on secrecy and reassignment instead of transparency and accountability,” attorney Mike Grieco said in a press release. “That structure is what allowed priests like Holihan and Curran to stay in ministry for years, putting children in harm’s way.”

The Chicago Archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuits.

As part of its investigations into clergy abuse, the Illinois attorney general’s office described Holihan as “one of the more notorious abusers in archdiocesan history.”

“The archdiocese knew what Holihan was doing to children years before it removed him from the pastorate — but during that time, it did nothing to stop him, taking him at his word that he could turn over a new leaf of his own accord,” the prosecutor’s office said.

The attorney general’s office also identified Curran as an alleged abuser. Holihan died in 2016, while Curran died in 2000.

Both Curran and Holihan are on the archdiocese’s list of priests with “substantiated” allegations of abuse leveled against them, and both are listed as having served at eight different locations in the archdiocese. Holihan was removed from public ministry in 2002 and laicized in 2010, while Curran was removed from public ministry in 1994.

Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of the Abuja Archdiocese at St. Luke’s Parish, Kubwa, during a confirmation Mass. / Credit: Photos courtesy of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja

ACI Africa, Nov 25, 2025 / 16:01 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja has reminisced about the days when the West African country was ranked the happiest place on earth and expressed sorrow that the situation is no longer the same today.

In fact, according to the Abuja archbishop, the saddest people on earth today might be in Nigeria, owing to poor governance, insecurity, and corruption.

“Today, certainly, we should be the saddest nation in the world, considering all that has happened since the kidnapping of young, innocent Chibok girls,” Kaigama said in his homily on Sunday, Nov. 23, at St. Luke’s Parish, Kubwa.

“We seem to be so traumatized by how badly we are treated that we hardly ask tough questions,” he added.

The archbishop observed that Nigerians are afraid to condemn crime in their country because of the protests by those supporting terrorism — including their chiefs, associations, and youths.

Kaigama descried the “injustice happening in Nigeria,” despite the West African country being said to be the “most religious” nation on earth, with different denominations and a high number of worshippers.

“Is our religiosity only about filling up mosques and churches with numbers or indeed allowing ourselves to be led by the Spirit of God to act justly, to love one another tenderly, and to walk in humble fellowship with our God?” he asked, calling for “national introspection, confession, and perhaps, social dialysis.”

In his reflection at Mass during which he conferred the sacrament of confirmation on 500 candidates, Kaigama called on the people of God in Nigeria to remain authentic to God through not only worship but also action.

He warned against treating God casually, urging Nigerians to demonstrate God’s presence in all aspects of their lives.

“We seem to approach God in a schizophrenic manner. We bow, kneel, clap, and call his name so loudly, while elegantly dressed on days of worship, but go on behaving as if he does not exist in our homes and places of work outside of our places of worship,” the archbishop said on the solemnity of Christ the King.

“For some today, God is treated as if he is a policeman … who is approached only when there is trouble or crisis,” he added.

Kaigama said a lot has been going astray in Nigeria since the country’s independence in 1960.

“Since 1960 to date, we have allowed tribal and religious sentiments to rule our politics and even the distribution of power and wealth of the nation,” he said.

“Sacred cows have been bred that some people from certain ethnic or religious groups are untouchables,” he added.

Kaigama decried favoritism, noting that the government only punishes those without a voice in society while leaving those in power to walk free.

The archbishop said justice and punishment should be served to all Nigerians regardless of their position or their social status, saying: “Being a leader does not mean you are beyond prosecution. Whether it is in the churches and mosques, the judiciary, the National Assembly, the presidency, or within the security agencies, the highest bidder seems to be the most respected. The law catches only the feeble.”

The archbishop condemned the Nigerian government for ignorance in calling corrupt people to book. “Agencies set up to prosecute corruption are said to end up trapped in the complex webs of corruption that you can hardly recognize them,’’ he said.

He went on to express concern that major beneficiaries of the country’s exploitative system are “awarded” and encouraged Nigerians to identify corrupt leaders in society and to hold them accountable for their actions without fear.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV speaks to reporters after a daylong stay at the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo on Nov. 25, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Nov 25, 2025 / 15:31 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday suggested that people “say thank you to someone” this Thanksgiving and he addressed concerns about violence in Lebanon ahead of his trip there later this week.

Speaking two days before Thanksgiving, the first U.S.-born pope celebrated what he called “this beautiful feast that we have in the United States, which unites all people, people of different faiths, people who perhaps do not have the gift of faith.” 

The pope urged all people, not just Americans, to take the occasion “to recognize that we all have received so many gifts, first and foremost, the gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of unity … and to give thanks to God for the many gifts we’ve been given.” 

Pope Leo answered questions from reporters as he left for Rome after a daylong stay at the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo.

Leo is set to begin his first international trip as pope Nov. 27, a six-day visit to Turkey and Lebanon. The foreign trip is the fulfillment of a promise made by Pope Francis to visit Lebanon, a Muslim-majority country. Regional instability and internal crises have battered the small country where about a third of the population is Christian.

Reporters asked Leo if violence in Lebanon is a concern.

“It’s always a concern,” the pope said. “Again, I would invite all people to look for ways, to abandon the use of arms as a way of solving problems, and to come together, to respect one another, to sit down together at the table, to dialogue and to work together for solutions for the problems that affect us.”

Regarding a message for Israel, the pope said he likewise encourages all people “to look for peace, to look for justice, because oftentimes violence occurs as a result of injustices. And I think we have to work together, look for greater unity, respect for all people and all religions.”

Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver leads hundreds in the Stations of the Cross outside an ICE detention center in Aurora, Colorado, on Nov. 22, 2025. / Credit: André Escaleira Jr./Denver Catholic

CNA Staff, Nov 25, 2025 / 13:48 pm (CNA).

Hundreds of Catholics gathered in front of the Denver Contract Detention Facility — an ICE detention facility in Aurora, Colorado — on Nov. 22 for Stations of the Cross led by Archbishop Samuel Aquila and Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodriguez of the Archdiocese of Denver. 

Sponsored by the Committee for Pastoral Care for Migrants, individuals from over 36 local parishes gathered for a peaceful procession and to stand in solidarity with undocumented immigrants who are being impacted by the mass deportations taking place across the United States.

“I want to thank all of you for coming today as we have prayed and walked the Stations of the Cross. They are reminders to us of God’s love for all people and for the immigrant, for the stranger, for those who are sick and suffering, and for all those who are in need of our prayer,” Aquila said according to a statement in the Denver Catholic. 

Aquila reminded the faithful in attendance that “we must remember the dignity of every human being. That dignity is not bestowed by any government. That dignity comes from God and God alone.”

The archbishop also called out both political parties for having “failed horribly when it comes to immigration. They have treated immigrants as pawns for their own elections, for their own desires, and they have failed every immigrant. Both political parties.”

Earlier this month, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) overwhelmingly voted to adopt a statement that opposes the indiscriminate mass deportation of immigrants who lack legal status and urged the government to uphold the dignity of migrants.

The bishops approved their special message on immigration at the 2025 Fall Plenary Assembly on Nov. 12 in Baltimore. The motion passed with support from more than 95% of the American bishops who voted. It received 216 votes in favor, just five against, and only three abstentions.

“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” the message emphasized.

“We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement,” it added. “We pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, and we are grateful for past and present opportunities to dialogue with public and elected officials.”

On Sunday Aquila also touched on the “Dignity Act,” a bipartisan immigration reform bill that would give undocumented immigrants a way to obtain legal status. 

“They may not have come with documents, but they have been living here peacefully for 10, 20, 30 years. Many of us know them, and they need a path to citizenship,” he said. 

He added: “The only ones who can mess that up are the political parties and the people of Congress, as they add their special preferences to the bill. If they just did not touch the bill the way it is today, it would be fine. But our system is broken, and it is because we put political parties before the dignity of the human being.”

“And so I encourage you, my sisters and brothers, and I thank you for being here today to give witness to the dignity of the human person and to the goodness of every human being from the moment of their conception through natural death,” Aquila concluded. “Let us continue to work for the immigrant and to proclaim Jesus Christ, no matter what the cost. May the Lord bless all of you and thank you for your witness.”

Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful in Piazza della Libertà in August 2025. / Credit: Marco Iacobucci Epp/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 25, 2025 / 13:18 pm (CNA).

Social media lit up last week with claims that Pope Leo XIV “threw a rave” outside St. Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice, Slovakia. The viral stories included images of laser lights, electronic dance music, and a priest serving as DJ. But what really happened? Here’s what you need to know.

What was the event?

An outdoor electronic music event in front of the city’s iconic 14th-century cathedral was organized by the Archdiocese of Košice to celebrate the Jubilee of Young People and the 75th birthday of Archbishop Bernard Bober. It took place on Nov. 8 and included a Mass celebrated by Bober, who is also the president of the Slovakian Episcopal Conference, with the apostolic nuncio to the country, Archbishop Nicola Girasoli.

Who was there?

The main performer was Father Guilherme Peixoto, 51, a Portuguese priest and electronic music DJ, who led attendees in a mix of electronic and spiritual music. Peixoto also performed at the 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon. “Electronic music is a privileged way to build a better world,” Peixoto has said.

Catholic leaders in Košice also attended the event.

Did the pope attend or host the rave?

Contrary to sensational headlines, Pope Leo XIV did not throw or personally attend a rave. Instead, the pope appeared on large LED screens via a prerecorded video message, greeting the young people and offering his apostolic blessing: “Dear young people, with joy, I greet you, as you gather before the splendid cathedral of Košice, which is a beating heart of faith and hope. Coming from different nations, yet united by the same faith, your presence is a tangible sign of the fraternity and peace that is instilled in our hearts by friendship with Christ.”

What really happened?

The DJ set blended techno music with fragments of the pope’s message and performed an unreleased track, “Dear Young People,” which included phrases spoken by Leo in his address. Lasers and lights lit up the cathedral, and the crowd — largely composed of young people — danced in celebration. According to press coverage at the time, the event aimed to connect faith with youth culture by “promoting inclusion, tolerance, and respect on the dance floor.”

The pope’s video message included a final “amen,” which was woven into the musical performance. While the Vatican supported the event, it was local clergy and the DJ priest who were hands-on organizers and hosts.

CNA finds: Claims that “the pope hosted or threw a rave” exaggerate the reality. The Vatican supported the event, the pope gave a prerecorded blessing, but the actual rave was organized and performed by Peixoto and the diocese in Košice. The pope did not attend in person nor DJ, but his message to young people and blessing were central to the celebration.

A map of Nigeria. / Credit: SevenMaps/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Nov 25, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).

Nigerian priest Father Mathias Ashinnoitian Adugba says more must be done to hold people accountable for the deaths of Christians and Muslims in the country.

Amid increasing media reports of religious persecution and violence in Africa’s most populous nation, Adugba told EWTN News reporter Valentina Di Donato that the “roots” of the multilayered conflict must first be exposed before justice for victims can be achieved.

“We need to ask who are those [people] sponsoring this problem because this is not a natural disaster. This is a human disaster,” he said in the exclusive interview.

“Whether it is the Muslims that are killed or the Christians that are killed it is enough for all of us to unitedly say, ‘Enough is enough,’” he said.

Last week, Pope Leo XIV told journalists gathered outside his Castel Gandolfo residence that “Christians and Muslims have been slaughtered” in Nigeria as a result of a conflict driven and further complicated by terrorism and economic factors.

“I think it’s very important to seek a way for the government, with all peoples, to promote authentic religious freedom,” the pontiff told journalists on Nov. 18.

According to Adugba, the country’s political volatility has left many Nigerians feeling helpless and disillusioned as they continue to frequently hear news of violent attacks, abductions, and murders in the country’s north.

“We need to hold our leaders accountable. We need to hold our institutions [and] our systems accountable,” he told EWTN News. “We need a judiciary that will hold somebody accountable for murdering another person.”

“If we cannot hold these institutions accountable or hold these individuals who commit these crimes accountable it becomes a problem,” he continued. 

“Sometimes we hear that somebody has been arrested, and before you know it, he has been set free. Why? Because the sponsors are the problem,” he said.

Recalling when he lived at a seminary in Jos, the capital city of Nigeria’s north-central Plateau state, Adugba said he and his peers witnessed great bloodshed while training for the Catholic priesthood.

“I remember that, as seminarians, we literally saw people being burnt alive,” Adugba told Di Donato.

“This persecution has emboldened our faith. It has made us stronger,” he said after recalling a funeral he attended of a seminarian who was burned to death in a rectory in Kaduna state. 

“Going back to the early Christians, persecution has always emboldened faith because you see somebody giving all, giving his all, and dying,” he told EWTN News. 

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church and so we take that really seriously,” he said.

Custos of the Holy Land Father Franceso Ielpo speaks with EWTN News in a two-part interview that began airing on “EWTN News Nightly” on Nov. 24, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 25, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The custos of the Holy Land said in an interview with EWTN News that the “greatest challenge” is to be a source of hope amid perpetual devastation due to conflict. 

“The greatest challenge is to always be able to give people hope. One can have food, one can have a home, one can have medicine, one can have the best schools, but to live, we all need hope. And this hope always arises when you see, when you feel the presence of God through the presence of the Church beside you,” Father Franceso Ielpo told EWTN News’ Matthew Bunson in a two-part interview that began airing Nov. 24 on “EWTN News Nightly.” 

Ielpo has served as custos of the Holy Land since his appointment by Pope Leo XIV in June, when he succeeded Father Francesdo Patton. It is Ielpo’s first visit to the United States as custos, a Latin term for “guardian” associated with the Franciscan order’s special responsibility to oversee and care for holy sites in the Holy Land.

Ielpo explained this challenge confronts the Christian community not only in Israel and Palestine but also in Lebanon and Syria. Custodians in these countries, he said, are faced with having “to grow and continue to live in a context of tension, in a context of perpetual conflict.” The Custody of the Holy Land is made up of 325 friars from over 40 countries. 

Ielpo said the latest conflict in Israel “has had very serious consequences” for “all communities in the Holy Land,” particularly in the employment sphere due to a lack of pilgrims to the region, which depends on religious tourism to generate income. He further emphasized the “tension of uncertainty about the future, especially for one’s children.” 

“The custody continues first and foremost to support and sustain the salaries of all our employees, of all our Christians, and also seeks to continue the educational work that is the schools,” Ielpo said. “We currently have 18 schools with about 10,000 students, both Christian and Muslim. Even for families who can no longer pay for school, we continue to guarantee education because we are convinced that the future is built in the classroom.” 

The work of the custody is not limited to the Christian community alone, he said, noting that 90% of the student population attending the Franciscan school in Jericho are Muslim. “They understand and appreciate that the service we offer is for everyone and is of high quality,” he said. At Magnificat, a music school that just celebrated its 30th anniversary, students and teachers are Christian, Muslim, and Jewish, he added.

“The thing that gives me the most hope is that God’s timing is not our timing, that history is carried forward despite all its contradictions by someone else,” he said. Even amid conflict, he continued, “hope always arises from the fact that God is the true protagonist of history, even in storms, even when it seems that he is on the boat and sleeping.” 

Concretely, the custos emphasized the need for pilgrims to return, not only for economic reasons, but to demonstrate to residents of the Holy Land that they are “seen, recognized, wanted, loved.” 

“The invitation is to return to the Holy Land,” he said. “The shrines are safe — come back, visit, and don’t just visit the shrines. Always ask to meet the communities, even if only for a prayer together … even if only for a greeting, because it is good for everyone.”

Conductor Riccardo Muti has been awarded the 2025 Ratzinger Prize. / Credit: Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy

Vatican City, Nov 25, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will present the 2025 Ratzinger Prize to the renowned Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, one of the most influential and respected figures in international music, during a concert in the pope’s honor on Dec. 12.

The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation announced that the prize will be awarded to Muti at a Christmas concert directed by the Italian conductor in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican, in the presence of the pope.

Recognized for the expressive depth with which he interprets musical scores, Muti was also admired by Benedict XVI, who, beyond his profound theological erudition, was a great lover and connoisseur of classical music. The German pontiff was an ardent admirer of Muti’s talent, to which he attributed exceptional spiritual and cultural value.

The maestro reciprocated this esteem with repeated expressions of affection, even after Benedict XVI resigned from the papacy in February 2013, when he moved to the “Mater Ecclesiae” Monastery for a life of prayer and seclusion.

Upon learning of the award, Muti expressed his emotion with these words: “I have always followed and deeply admired Pope Benedict XVI, whose thoughts, reflections, and meditations have been and will continue to be a source of [spiritual] nourishment for men and women of goodwill.”

The presentation of the 2025 Ratzinger Prize will not only celebrate the maestro’s artistic achievements but will also be a tribute to the relationship of mutual admiration and profound respect he had for Benedict.

The concert will include the “Mass for the Coronation of Charles X,“ composed by Luigi Cherubini in 1885, performed by the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and the Guidi Chigi Saracini Choir of the Cathedral of Siena.

Muti, born in 1941 in Naples, began his musical career as a pianist and choirmaster, eventually becoming one of the world’s most renowned conductors.

He has conducted some of the foremost orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he has left an indelible mark thanks to his commitment to the faithful interpretation of classical music. Throughout his career, he has received numerous international awards, solidifying his reputation as a master of the symphonic and operatic repertoire.

The Ratzinger Prize, established in 2011, is awarded annually upon the recommendation of the foundation’s scientific committee and with the approval of the pope, recognizing outstanding figures in Christian-inspired culture and art. Previous recipients include theologians, biblical scholars, philosophers, jurists, and artists from various continents and religious denominations.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV meets with Bishop Rolando Álvarez on Nov. 13, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 25, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Former Nicaraguan political prisoner Félix Maradiaga was recently elected president of the World Liberty Congress (WLC). In an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, he analyzed the “silence” of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which is under persecution by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega.

Maradiaga, who is also president of the Foundation for the Freedom of Nicaragua and holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University, now leads a global organization — the WLC — that promotes democracy, human rights, and freedom, especially in the more than 60 countries under authoritarian regimes, seeking to coordinate opposition movements and defending religious freedom as an essential part of its agenda.

In Nicaragua, he warned, “there is silence because the dictatorship is very good at achieving censorship. There is transnational repression, which is the perverse methodology of dictatorships to not only censor, silence, and murder within their borders, but to do so outside their borders as well.”

“We saw, for example, the recent assassination of retired Nicaraguan Army Major Roberto Samcam in Costa Rica, the threats against priests who are in exile, that if they speak out, if they express their opinions, then there will be consequences for their brothers in the faith inside Nicaragua. And that has generated a climate of censorship where those in exile cannot speak because they put their own families at risk,” Maradiaga charged.

Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” which in its latest edition from August of this year denounced the prohibition of more than 16,500 processions in the country, said something similar to EWTN News at the time.

Catholic priests “are prohibited from making any complaints, and if by chance any aggression is exposed in the media, then the [dictatorship] simply denies it,” the author explained.

Furthermore, “the laypeople are terrified that members of the Citizens’ Power Council and the paramilitaries, which are organizations affiliated with the dictatorship, will harm them if they decide to speak out,” which is compounded by the fact that there are no independent media outlets in Nicaragua.

Duty of the laity and ‘dilemma’ of the Church in Nicaragua

“And now I speak as a Catholic: The responsibility of committed laypeople is to speak for our brother priests who cannot speak. What has happened in Nicaragua is a terrible censorship,” Maradiaga lamented in the interview with EWTN News.

“And finally, the Church faces a dilemma. It has to continue exercising its pastoral role within Nicaragua, a pastoral role that involves preaching the Gospel of Christ to all people. And that is what puts the Catholic Church in a dilemma,” he added.

However, Maradiaga highlighted as signs of hope that Pope Leo XIV recently met with Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who is in exile in Rome. “We believe that with the new papacy of His Holiness, Nicaraguan Catholics, the persecuted Nicaraguan Church will receive attention,” he emphasized.

Before being deported by the regime, Álvarez was detained for 17 months, first under house arrest and then in prison, charged with treason. 

How does the Ortega dictatorship remain in power?

According to Maradiaga, “Daniel Ortega’s dictatorial regime has taken advantage of a world that is completely distracted and overwhelmed by a series of crises. I always say that these crises unfortunately allow dictatorships to advance more quickly.”

“Ortega has turned Nicaragua into a giant prison, he has established a system of extrajudicial killings, he continues to haul off people to prison, he has practically closed all the independent universities in the country, he doesn’t allow freedom of the press, he has forced more than 15% of the population into exile, but he does this because he has Iran, China, and Russia behind him, and therefore the democratic change in Nicaragua must be part of an international agenda for the restoration of democracy,” he explained.

“I firmly believe that striking a blow against Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship in Venezuela, getting rid of Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship in Venezuela, will have a direct impact on Ortega’s dictatorship,” added Maradiaga, referring to the increasingly tougher measures the Trump administration has been taking against the Maduro regime.

U.S. cracking down on illegal migration through Nicaragua

On Nov. 17, U.S. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the United States government had decided to “revoke visas for individuals in Nicaragua identified as knowingly facilitating illegal immigration,” such as “owners, executives, and senior officials of transportation companies, travel agencies, and tour operators.”

“In recent years, Ortega opened a gateway for migrants. Initially for migrants from Cuba and Venezuela, but at a certain point, Ortega opened a gateway for migration from countries in Africa and Asia,” Arturo McFields, Nicaragua’s former ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

“Conviasa flights began departing from Havana: Venezuela provided the Conviasa airline, Cuba provided the migrants, and Ortega provided the springboard to begin the migratory route to the United States,” he stated.

“And in these cases, all those migrants received tickets to go to Managua. And from Managua, they began a journey to the United States. This was something that enriched the regime,” McFields charged from exile.

He thus concluded: “Many migrants saw arriving in Nicaragua as a door of hope, when in reality they were subjected to all kinds of abuses and a brutal business that Ortega was running with an iron fist and with an entire structure in which he offered transportation from the airport, lodging, and a series of logistical arrangements until taking the person to the border with Honduras: It was a complete human trafficking industry.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.