Two foreign-policy analysts argued that the Nicaraguan government’s persecution of the Church “has evolved into part of the regime’s succession strategy.”
Daniel Ortega, 80, is Nicaragua’s president; his wife, Rosario Murillo, 75, is co-president. Connor Pfeiffer and Samuel Ben-Ur said that “lacking Ortega’s cult of personality, Murillo is leveraging religious persecution to eliminate rival sources of moral and political authority while Ortega is still alive.”