A famous leftist revolutionary, hoping to shore up electoral support, backs a strict pro-life law. A government minister genuflects in front of the Pope. A radio station is punished for replacing a presidential address with the rosary. Welcome to the politics of Nicaragua, where Catholicism and revolutionary socialism have clashed amid a national tragedy.
That drama has thrilled and horrified the world, as the archives of this magazine can attest. From 1979, when Daniel Ortega’s socialist Sandinistas seized power from the oligarchic Somoza regime, our coverage, along with that of other publications, grew and grew. In 1979, we were reporting that “the bishops were particularly concerned by reports that some followers of the Somoza government had been executed or were missing, that private property was being nationalised indiscriminately and that the system of relief distribution did not help the most needy”. The bishops believed the Sandinistas were trying to suborn the Church to political ends.
