After officials imprisoned Catholics and expelled their priests to Rome, authorities began arresting Christian leaders and pastors. Britt Hancock of Mountain Gateway, which operates in the Central American country, says his ministry has been impacted.
"We have 11 direct Gateway personnel that are in prison today in Nicaragua," he details. "They also imprisoned a couple of our lawyers that had done legal work for us."
As AFN has reported, Britt, his son (Jacob Hancock), and his daughter-in-law (Cassandra Hancock) have also been indicted on "bogus charges" of money laundering. And Mountain Gateway is not the only evangelical ministry that has been targeted.
"They all give the sense that it's common knowledge that there's surveillance in their churches and they have to be super careful with what they say," Hancock relays from hundreds of evangelical pastors in the country. "Family members have disappeared. Other pastors have been imprisoned."
Trial for the 11 Mountain Gateway personnel was set for last week, but so far, Hancock has received no information on whether the proceedings were held or of their outcome.
The ultimate goal of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, is reportedly "to remove the obstacle of organized critical Christian voices against the government."
