Politics Foreign Policy News

Salazar Signals US Push to Defend Religious Freedom Amid Ortega Regime

During a House Foreign Affairs hearing, Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chair Maria Salazar urged strong U.S. action to defend religious liberty, spotlighting Nicaragua’s crackdown under Ortega and Murillo—expulsions of clergy, church closures, arrests of faith-based NGOs, and bans on processions—while stressing the resilience of Nicaragua’s Catholic and Evangelical communities and signaling a broader U.S. commitment to religious rights in the Western Hemisphere.