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—and now has cancelled the Society’s legal status.
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.