Ortega-Murillo regime has closed 22 religious media outlets since 2018

Radio María was shut down after two years of the regime’s persecution of religious media outlets. The remaining Catholic media outlets still operating in Nicaragua face the risk of being closed in the future, and Evangelical Church media are not safe either


After three months of state harassment, having its bank accounts blocked, and being forced to transmit Rosario Murillo’s daily monologues, Radio María’s legal status was revoked by the dictatorship on July 9.

Even though Radio María violated its own rules prohibiting the transmission of non-religious, especially political, content in an effort to stay operational, the Ortega-Murillo regime’s crackdown still came down on it.

“We already know that Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are temperamental. One day they say one thing and the next day another. Unfortunately, they considered it best to completely shut down the radio. In the coming hours, the confiscation of all buildings might proceed, if we analyze the pattern of other closure cases,” says religious issues researcher Martha Patricia Molina.

The closure of Radio María and its possible confiscation is something the dictatorship had planned for a long time, Molina indicates. The regime has been shutting it down gradually since April, starting with freezing its bank accounts to economically strangle the station, which relied solely on donations.

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As a result, the radio was forced to reduce its staff. Just a few weeks ago, on June 26, the radio announced through social media that it was reducing its broadcast hours from 24 hours to 5 AM to 7 PM.

“Since Mrs. Rosario Murillo knows that no one listens to her on official media, she saw a good opportunity to reach more people because Radio María has a high demand of listeners who are always attentive to the programming,” she says. Nevertheless, this did not prevent its closure, ending more than 20 years of operation in the country.

Arbitrary closure of religious media

Ortega-Murillo regime has closed 22 religious media outlets since 2018
Police outside the San Jerónimo church in Masaya. EFE.

The regime’s persecution of the Catholic Church, and now the Evangelical Church, has led to the closure of 22 religious media outlets from the start of the socio political crisis in 2018 up until July 9 of this year.

The initial closures of religious media were not systematic or due to religious persecution but were driven by political reasons. The first outlet shut down in this context was Radio Jerusalén, which broadcasted on frequency 106 FM and was managed by the parents of Ángel Gahona, a journalist murdered on April 21, 2018, while covering anti-government protests in Bluefields, South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (RACCS).

On the day of his murder, Radio Jerusalén stopped broadcasting and subsequently closed, as Ángel Gahona Remos and Amanda López, the parents of the murdered journalist, had to go into exile for demanding justice from the Ortega-Murillo regime.

Three years later, the Ortega-Murillo regime closed another religious media outlet, TV21, also known as Enlace Canal 21, along with Radio Nexos on frequency 97.5 FM. These media were owned by Reverend Guillermo Osorno of the Evangelical Church.

On November 9, 2021, the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services (Telcor) revoked the TV channel’s license and ordered the radio station to cease transmission, claiming they were broadcasting without the proper permits.

However, the closure of these two media outlets happened only three days after the general elections, in which Osorno claimed there was fraud by the ruling party. The reverend had participated as a presidential candidate for the Nicaraguan Christian Path Party.

Persecution against Catholic media began in 2022

The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship began its widespread crackdown on Catholic media in 2022.

Although the regime had always harassed the Catholic Church since the beginning of the sociopolitical crisis, the repression intensified in 2022. This escalation included the cancellation of legal statuses of religious organizations, arbitrary detentions and trials of priests, and the revocation of broadcasting licenses for media belonging to the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua.

The closure began on May 20, 2022, when Telcor prohibited cable television companies like Claro, Tigo, and Sky from transmitting the Catholic Channel of Nicaragua. This channel was the main medium of the Episcopal Conference and one of the most-watched by the Catholic Church.

Telcor’s cancellations of other Catholic television channels continued in the following days with TV Merced, the channel of the Diocese of Matagalpa, and the Catholic Channel San José, managed by the Diocese of Estelí.

Finally, between August 1 and 24, 2022, the regime closed 12 Catholic radios managed by the Diocese of Matagalpa and the Diocese of Estelí, as well as an independent radio that broadcasts masses and prayers of the Catholic Church in San Carlos, Río San Juan.

During that period, Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was in charge of the media of the Diocese of Matagalpa and in contact with Telcor, was confined in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa along with eight members of the diocese. He was later arrested and charged with conspiracy against national sovereignty and spreading false news.

Ortega-Murillo regime has closed 22 religious media outlets since 2018
Bishop Rolando Álvarez in Matagalpa

Telcor and Ministry of the Interior behind the closures

“All Catholic media and, in general, the Catholic Church are under the scrutiny of the Sandinista dictatorship. This is due to the indiscriminate persecution the dictatorship has against religious entities. Anything related to Catholicism will be persecuted by the dictatorship,” Molina says.

Most closures were due to Telcor’s cancellations, but there were also closures due to the revocation of legal statuses ordered by the Ministry of the Interior against Catholic associations that managed media outlets, such as Radio María.

For example, the cancellation of the Association of Catholic Publishers on May 31, 2022, led to the closure of the printed newspaper Voz Católica de Nicaragua.

Other Catholic radio stations such as Radio Católica de Bluefields on frequency 100.5 FM also closed, due to “economic reasons”. However, this closure occurred during the dates of closures ordered by the dictatorship.

Remaining Catholic media could be shut down

The closure of Radio María comes after two years of relentless persecution against Catholic media by the regime. “The trend is towards the closure of all Church media. The dictatorship aims to undermine the Catholic Church in every possible way. This constitutes a violation of human rights, particularly the right to religious freedom. The laity will suffer the most, and it also represents a significant economic loss for the Catholic Church,” she asserts.

As seen in the final days of Radio María’s operation, it is likely that remaining religious media outlets will begin broadcasting propagandistic and political content from the dictatorship to delay their own closure. “This is a scenario that could potentially be replicated in the few remaining media outlets in the country,” Molina concludes.


The information we publish in DIVERGENTES comes from contrasted sources. Due to the situation in the region, many times, we are forced to protect them under pseudonymity or anonymity. Unfortunately, some governments in the region, including the Nicaraguan regime, do not provide information or censor independent media. For this reason, despite requesting it, we cannot rely on official, authorized versions. We resort to data analysis, anonymous internal sources, or limited information from the official media. These are the conditions under which we exercise a profession that, in many cases, costs us our safety and our lives. We will continue to report.