Christ the King statue removed in Nicaraguan capital by anti-Catholic leftist regime

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (LifeSiteNews) — Authorities in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua removed a prominent Christ the King statue during a road expansion project, raising uncertainty about its future following prior government actions suppressing Catholicism within the nation.

On April 16, municipal authorities in Managua oversaw the removal of the Christ the King statue from a central roundabout as part of the widening of the Pista Héroes y Mártires de la Insurrección, a major infrastructure project promoted by the anti-Catholic government of President Daniel Ortega.

The operation, described officially as temporary and technical, was carried out overnight with cranes and cutting equipment, while questions persist regarding the statue’s eventual restoration and reinstallation.

READ: Nicaragua banned Holy Week processions for fourth year as anti-Catholic persecution intensifies

Prior to the operation, the Managua City Hall – aligned with the governing authorities – had announced in March that the statue would be taken down temporarily for restoration. No precise timeline for its return was provided at that stage. The dismantling itself proceeded swiftly and with limited public notice, although preparatory work had reportedly been conducted hours in advance.

During the night of April 16, workers began cutting the upper portion of the sculpture before lifting it away with a crane. The process was recorded by residents and circulated widely on social media platforms. Some users shared footage accompanied by messages expressing concern or dissatisfaction, including phrases indicating a perceived farewell to the site.

Authorities have indicated that the statue could either return to its original location or be integrated into the redesigned urban layout once construction is completed. Despite these assurances, no verifiable details have been released concerning the conditions under which the sculpture will be preserved during the works, nor have authorities specified a schedule for its reinstallation.

Nicaragua’s dictatorship arose as Daniel Ortega dismantled democratic checks after regaining power in 2007. He captured courts, elections, and the military, turning the leftist Sandinista Front into a family autocracy with his wife Rosario Murillo, who controls propaganda and security.

The regime has targeted the Catholic Church for defending protesters and human rights since 2018. Clergy were branded enemies, churches raided, processions and ordinations banned, and Bishop Rolando Álvarez has been jailed and then exiled. Sentenced to 26 years in prison on February 10, 2023, Álvarez was later freed and exiled to the Vatican City on January 14, 2024, along with Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega, 15 priests, and two seminarians.

By crushing the Church’s moral authority, Ortega aims to erase independent voices and secure total ideological control, isolating Nicaragua abroad.

Ortega’s ideology is called “Sandinismo.” It emerged in Nicaragua in the 1960s and 1970s as a revolutionary movement inspired by the nationalist and anti‑imperialist ideals of Augusto César Sandino, who had fought U.S. occupation in the 1930s.

Sandino combined Marxist thought with Latin American liberation theology. When the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, they reportedly sought to build a new socialist society rooted in equality and popular participation.

In its early years, the revolution attracted the sympathy of many Jesuit and progressive priests, who saw in it a chance to apply the Gospel’s call for justice to the poor. Priests such as Ernesto Cardenal, Fernando Cardenal, and Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann joined the government as ministers, convinced that Christian faith and revolutionary commitment could coexist. This blending of religion and politics reflected the broader influence of liberation theology across Latin America, which interpreted Christ’s message as a mandate to transform unjust social structures.

However, this alignment provoked tension with the Vatican. During his 1983 visit to Nicaragua, Pope John Paul II publicly admonished Father Ernesto Cardenal, then Minister of Culture, at the Managua airport. In a moment captured worldwide, the pope stopped Cardenal as he knelt for a blessing and told him, “Regularize your position with the Church.”

That gesture symbolized Rome’s rejection of clerical involvement in revolutionary politics and marked the beginning of a long rift between the Sandinista regime and the Catholic Church, a situation that persists to this day.