Nicaragua expels lead bishop in crackdown on Catholic Church

Nicaragua has expelled Bishop Carlos Herrera, the head of the country's episcopal conference, a lawyer tied to the Catholic Church told Reuters on Thursday, amid an extended state crackdown targeting the Church.

Local media earlier reported that Herrera, 75, had been expelled to Guatemala where he was received by members of his Franciscan order. Guatemala's presidency confirmed to Reuters that Herrera had entered the country.

"Bishop Herrera has been banished," Martha Molina, a lawyer with close ties to Nicaragua's Catholic leadership, told Reuters. "This has shocked us very much."

Molina said Herrera had suffered "persecution by the dictatorship," from several leading security and administrative officials.

She said he had been expelled because he complained about disruptions to his mass made by people tied to the mayor's office of north-central Jinotega.

Herrera's mass had been interrupted by people setting up loudspeakers outside, added Costa Rican Bishop Manuel Eugenio Salazar in a post on social media.

"May the Immaculate Conception crush the old serpent's head!" Salazar said.

Nicaragua's government did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters about Herrera or about Molina's comments.

During the country's 2018 anti-government protests Herrera had advocated for several young people who had been arrested in Jinotega, and arranged for them to be released.

President Daniel Ortega's crackdown on the Catholic Church, as well as civil society, has intensified since the 2018 protests, during which many bishops acted as mediators between the state and its critics.

The government of Ortega, who accuses the Church of supporting the opposition, has since expelled several clergymen, shuttered Catholic media and seized a prominent Jesuit-run university in the capital, Managua.

(Reporting by Gabriela Selser; Additional reporting by Sofia Menchu in Guatemala City and Alvaro Murillo in San Jose; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Sandra Maler)