Screenshot of the Diocese of Matagalpa's Facebook Live on August 4, 20222. This story, which is part of the Civic Media Observatory*, was written by a contributor who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons. Nine Catholic priests are now in jail in Nicaragua, one bishop is under house arrest and several religious men have fled the country to avoid imprisonment. After the shutdown of hundreds of civil society organizations in the past couple of years and the arrest of political activists, the Nicaraguan clergy was one of the few remaining critical voices in the country. The arrests of clergymen have raised the number of political prisoners in Nicaragua to 205. According to the Global Voices Civic Media Observatory research, several strong narratives are at play in Nicaraguan media, vying for attention. For the Ortega-Murillo government — considered authoritarian by international observers — the crackdown on priests is legal because they consider them to be “rapists,” “women-beaters” and part of a plan to destabilize the country. From the perspective of the clergy, the Catholic population, and independent media, Nicaraguan authorities are persecuting religious people to further criminalize dissent. The sociopolitical crisis ignited in 2018 when the government repressed massive protests of citizens demanding to keep their social security system. After the excessive use of police force, protesters demanded that President Ortega resign — Ortega has now been in power for 15 consecutive years. During this violent crackdown, about 350 people died, hundreds were sent to jail and faced what is widely considered in media and human rights organizations as sham trials. Since then, Nicaragua has become the country with the second highest rate of emigrants seeking asylum, after Afghanistan. At the time, Catholic Church leaders had become formal mediators between Ortega and the opposition. But their recommendations of ceasing the repression and their humanitarian help were not well received by the regime: on July 19 that year, Ortega said that the Catholic Church was part of a coup attempt against him and called the priests “sons of the devil” and “terrorists.” Since then, Ortega has threatened and harassed priests who ultimately fled the country, expelled the Apostolic Nuncio and the nuns from the Mother Teresa order from Nicaragua, closed several Catholic media and non-profit organizations and has used Sandinista paramilitary forces to attack churches and bishops. Narratives in Nicaragua's social media ecosystem Several strong and contradictory narratives are circulating on social media. The Global Voices Civic Media Observatory works to identify and analyze them, as well as their impact, through a deep analysis of media items. See the analysis of the following narratives in the research's dataset. Government channels, and its affiliate media and social media users share the following narratives: Democracy activists, the clergy, and Nicaraguan Catholics share these narratives: The last wave of repression against the Catholic Church started on August 1 with the cancellation of seven Catholic radio stations that belonged to the Diocese of Matagalpa in the north of the country, allegedly because they failed to provide legal documentation. During Mass, Bishop Rolando Álvarez, leader of the Diocese of Matagalpa, refuted this and said that these closures were politically motivated. After his declarations, several police officers prevented Álvarez from going back to church by blocking his residence. A couple of days later, Álvarez stepped out, knelt down, and prayed in front of the police officers to ask them to stop harassing him. The image became viral. Café con Voz, an independent online media, tweeted: La imagen que da vuelta al mundo. El obispo de Matagalpa, @DiocesisdeMat, de rodillas en la puerta de la Curia de esa ciudad, ora rodeado de guardias sandinistas que lo asedian y mantienen sitiado desde ayer. pic.twitter.com/TYTzDrqAuc — Café con Voz (@CafeconVozNi) August 4, 2022 The image that goes around the world. The Bishop of Matagalpa, @DiocesisdeMat, on his knees at the door of the Curia of the city, prays surrounded by Sandinista guards who besiege him and have kept him under siege since yesterday. The siege continued for two weeks, until August 19, when heavily-armed police raided Álvarez’s residence and arrested him and other priests who lived there. Nicaraguan Bishop Silvio Báez, exiled in Miami, tweeted: Con el corazón indignado y dolido condeno el secuestro nocturno de Mons. Álvarez. ¡Quienes lo sepan, digan dónde está mi hermano obispo! ¡Que sus secuestradores respeten su dignidad y lo liberen! De nuevo, la dictadura vuelve a superar su propia maldad y su espíritu diabólico.