WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville joined U.S. Senators Rick Scott (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Katie Britt (R-AL) in a letter to President Joe Biden calling on the administration to implement strong, targeted sanctions on Nicaragua. The letter follows repeated and escalating violations of religious freedom in Nicaragua, including toward Alabama Missionaries Jon Britton “Britt” and Audrey Hancock, the founders of Mountain Gateway Ministries.
“We write to you today with deep concern regarding repeated violations of religious freedom in Nicaragua,” wrote the senators. “These oppressive actions targeting religious groups, especially those associated with the Catholic Church, were demonstrated again by the recent actions taken by regime leader President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, against Mountain Gateway, a U.S.-based Christian organization which has maintained a missionary presence in Latin America for more than a decade. While your administration has employed some targeted sanctions, there is much more that must be done to hold the Ortega-Murillo regime accountable for these disturbing violations of religious freedom and decades of abuse and corruption. These actions are the latest chilling representation of the oppression of human rights in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela under their evil regimes, and a call to action for the United States to show strength in defense of human rights, democracy and freedom in our Hemisphere.”
The full letter can be found here.
BACKGROUND:
In recent months, the Ortega-Murillo regime has arrested 13 pastors associated with evangelical group Mountain Gateway, who were targeted despite having the approval, support, and assistance of the Nicaraguan government, and has issued arrest warrants for three American citizens associated with the organization. In their letter, the Senators write that the unjust imprisonment of these religious leaders further confirms the Ortega-Murillo regime’s corruption and coordination with the regimes in Venezuela and Cuba in an oppressive campaign of destabilization in the Western Hemisphere.
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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