The Daniel Ortega regime has reinforced its control over religious demonstrations in Nicaragua by vetoing thousands of Holy Week processions.
The measure, which has been repeated for several consecutive years, consolidates a scenario where faith is relegated to the private sphere, far from the streets that were historically its most vivid expression.
According to different reports, more than 20,000 processions have been banned in the last three years, in a policy that not only limits religious freedom, but also profoundly alters one of the country's most deep-rooted cultural traditions.
Nicaraguan Holy Week, with its symbolic and popular richness, has been for generations a community and spiritual meeting point that
is now severely restricted.Since 2023, the Ortega dictatorship has imposed a total ban on processions on public roads, allowing only celebrations inside temples, under strict surveillance.
This decision has been interpreted by various sectors as part of a broader strategy of social control, in which any collective demonstration, even religious, is viewed with suspicion.
