Following the shutdown of the Jesuit-run Central American University (UCA), the Ortega regime in Nicaragua ordered members of the Society of Jesus to leave their residence in Managua, the nation’s capital.
Daniel Ortega, a leader of the Marxist Sandinistas who overthrew the authoritarian regime of Gen. Anastasio Somoza Debayle, ruled Nicaragua from the 1979 Sandinista takeover until his loss in the 1990 presidential election; he returned to power in 2007. A prominent Jesuit, Father Fernando Cardenal, served as Ortega’s Minister of Education from 1984 to 1990—resulting in his suspension by Pope St. John Paul II.