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Nicaragua downplays health emergency, does not have any national restriction or measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19
By La Croix International staff | Nicaragua
Catholic bishops in Central America are encouraging Nicaraguan bishops to speak and act to protect the most vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic.
"We express our closeness and solidarity with the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, for their great concern and generous action in favor of the health and life of the beloved Nicaraguan people", reads a statement issued by SEDAC, the Episcopal Secretariat of Central America.
The statement was from Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas and Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez, both from El Salvador and representing the Presidency Council of the Episcopal Secretariat of Central America.
The Church in the region also invites governments and citizens to join efforts "in favor of people's health and life," they said adding, "Nobody should be forgotten".
They pointed out that "we are all in the same boat" and "we all must get involved. Governments and citizens must join together in a common effort in favor of health and people's lives", they said.
"In addition, we all must comply with the health security measures to protect the lives of our brothers and sisters", they added.
Nicaragua does not have any national restriction or measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the country's authoritarian Sandinista President Daniel Ortega's regime has downplayed the deaths in this pandemic by saying more people die from traffic accidents, drowning and other diseases.
Ortega, while ruling out a quarantine, had also defended "normality" arguing that it will help the poorest.
The Ministry of Health does not recognize that Nicaragua is experiencing a health emergency with official figures reporting 2,519 COVID-19 cases and 83 deaths.
However, the COVID-19 Citizens' Observatory, made up of independent experts, says there are 7,402 suspected cases, and 2,087 deaths.
Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa had announced a plan to allow prevention and medical care centers to deal with suspected cases of coronavirus in Matagalpa, which was prohibited by the Ministry of Health.
The government has blocked all types of help and information that organizations or individuals seek to provide to the most vulnerable, Fides reported.
"Any measure taken to safeguard the lives of Nicaraguans will always be over any other interest, since safeguarding life is our greatest common good. It is urgent to equip public health personnel with the necessary protective equipment to avoid further contagion among them," the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua, headed by Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes, said in its May 12 pastoral letter.
Various medical and civil society organizations in the country had earlier demanded that the Ortega regime help doctors in public hospitals who are treating COVID-19 patients.
Besides the COVID-19 health crisis, Nicaragua has been embroiled in protests calling for the rejection of the Ortega regime.
The Catholic Church has attempted to strike a compromise between the government and the opposition in the central American nation whose people are 58 percent Catholic and 23 percent evangelical.
Ortega has attacked the Catholic Church and priests who criticize the regime's repression, crimes and violations of rights and freedoms.
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