(CNN Spanish) — A group of Brazilian nuns from the Fraternidad Pobres de Jesucristo organization announced in a statement on Monday that they will continue their service from El Salvador, after seven years of religious and humanitarian activity in Nicaragua.
Several human rights defenders and people close to the sisters denounced this Sunday that the Nicaraguan police raided the place where they lived. They even demanded that their integrity be respected.
As reported to CNN by a source of the Catholic Church, everything is a consequence of the fact that the government is not renewing the residency documents of foreign missionaries.
CNN has asked the Nicaraguan government for a reaction, with no response yet.
The Fraternidad Pobres de Jesucristo organization, a movement born in Brazil and present in a dozen countries, is characterized by the management of food and the coverage of the primary needs of groups at social risk.
The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega maintains a campaign against the Nicaraguan Catholic Church.
He recently claimed to be part of a money laundering ring allegedly involving people previously convicted of “treason” and several dioceses in the country, without giving specific details, according to a press release published by the National Police.
The announced money laundering investigations represent the latest episode in a series of actions taken by the Ortega regime against the Catholic Church, which this year alone has seen the closure of a university in the archdiocese of Managua, the arrests of priests, expulsion of the nuns from the country and the breaking of diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
— Elvin Sandoval and Merlin Delcid contributed to this report.
