Pence suggests U.S. alter trade agreement with Nicaragua in response to church persecution

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Former Vice President Mike Pence condemned Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s anti-Catholic persecution in comments at a religious freedom summit in Washington Jan. 30, arguing the U.S. should alter its existing trade agreement with that government if its religious persecution continues.

In comments at the International Religious Freedom Summit, an annual gathering of lawmakers and human rights advocates in Washington, Pence said, “I believe the time has come for the United States to make it clear to Nicaragua that we will not tolerate action against, suppression of, church leaders and religious leaders in Nicaragua without consequence.”

Ortega’s regime has persecuted the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, U.S. officials and lawmakers have said, targeting church leaders who have criticized his government. Among them, Bishop Rolando Álvarez was sentenced in February 2023 to 26 years in prison the day after he refused to be deported to the U.S. with more than 200 other Nicaraguan political prisoners. Pope Francis publicly denounced Bishop Álvarez’s sentence and the deportation of Nicaraguans from their homeland. The Vatican March 18 shuttered its nunciature in Nicaragua after Ortega’s government proposed suspending diplomatic relations with the Holy See.

Bishop Álvarez, along with 18 other churchmen, was exiled and deported to Rome earlier in January, after spending over 500 days in prison.

Pence argued that the United States should alter its trade agreement with Nicaragua if the Ortega regime does not stop targeting Catholic clergy and religious.

“We have in the United States … a free trade agreement with Nicaragua,” Pence said. “We are the most powerful economy on earth and I’m someone that believes in free trade with free nations. And we ought to make it clear to Nicaragua that you will begin to respect the religious liberty of people of every faith in Nicaragua or our relationship will change.”

Pence reiterated those comments while answering a separate question about the U.S. response to China’s repression of Uyghurs.

“I really do believe the nature of our economic relationship ought to be tied to advancing the interest of our country with nations that share our core values, and standing up for the Uyghurs who have faced repression, have been rounded up into camps, forced sterilization, Christian pastors, churches, that have been burned to the ground, and other religious minorities,” Pence said, arguing such matters call for “moral clarity” from the United States.

Pence made similar comments about Nicaragua while he was vice president. In 2018 comments, Pence said Ortega “is virtually waging war on the Catholic Church.”

Also in 2018, Pence spoke with Cardinal Pietro Parolin the Holy See’s secretary of state, to condemn the violence in Nicaragua.

Organizers of the International Religious Freedom Summit said they would seek to bring together “a broad coalition that passionately supports religious freedom around the globe.”

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