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Bibles are now contraband in Nicaragua.

The country’s ruling Sandinista Socialists appear to have aligned with North Korea’s similar rule, which bans tourists from bringing Bibles into the country.

Recently listed, the Ortego oligarchy put Bibles alongside other prohibited items like drones, newspapers, and knives.

Viral images shared online show posters banning the Good Book on stops serviced by Tica Buses.

Even though the Ortego regime hasn’t confirmed the ban or publicised one, the pattern of persecution fits (see here).

A ‘Significant Deterioration of Civil Liberties’

For now, any official advice for tourists remains offline.

Although Tica Buses’ advisory page on travelling to Nicaragua does not currently mention the policy, Tica representatives have confirmed that the policy exists.

Responding to questions from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Tica representatives said the “ban has been in place since June.”

According to CSW, “the introduction of these restrictions comes amid a continued and significant deterioration of civil liberties in the country.”

Specifically, “religious freedom and freedom of expression.”

For example, “religious leaders are routinely subjected to short- and long-term arbitrary detention, and public religious events and processions are prohibited.”

The exempt are events and church leaders, “who are aligned with and supportive of the Sandinistas.”

Giving further examples, CSW recalled the shutdown of more than 5,000 independent civil society organisations since 2018.

Over 1,300 of those were faith-based.

Ortaga’s anti-freedom measures included restrictions on independent media outlets accessing key resources, such as ink and paper.

CSW said, “This led to the 2019 closure of the 40-year-old El Nuevo Diario, which was one of the newspapers most critical of the regime.”

CSW director Anna Lee Stangl protested the policy, saying it should be immediately retracted.

Here, Stangl also told the Ortego government to cease its attacks on civil liberties.

She then turned her attention to the international community, “reiterating calls for that community to come up with creative ways to support and strengthen independent Nicaraguan voices.”

North Korean Parallels

Trying to make sense of the regime’s Bible ban, CentroAmerica360’s (CA3) editorial team said the policy was “unprecedented.”

They called the tourist restrictions “maddening.”

CA3 then explained that “restricting religious texts” was a major escalation in Ortega’s ongoing crackdown on the media, which began in 2022.

Providing background, they said, “Tica Bus did not detail the specific legal framework of the new provisions.”

However, “Tica did confirm that they were officially communicated.”

Bus terminals have been firmly instructed to either “refuse entry to any passengers carrying a Bible. If found, staff were to confiscate the Bible before boarding.”

Equating the ban with North Korea, CA3 implied that travellers to Nicaragua should be prepared to hand over “printed materials and or religious objects.”

The North Korean parallel with Nicaraguan policy is not a stretch.

As the famed British travel writer, Michael Palin, found out in 2018, when filming his documentary about the closed Communist country.

North Korean authorities police smuggling in a bible the way any other country would police “trafficking” drugs or guns.

Among the “questions Palin didn’t expect, was being asked if he had a Bible with him.”

“I normally say, yes, absolutely,” he remarked.

“I’m a good Christian. But no, that’s the wrong answer here. If you say I have a Bible, they will want to know why.”

“It’s a little unsettling, and that is probably deliberate.”

Relaying comments from a Christian missionary familiar with the politics in Nicaragua, BGEA’s Decision Magazine stated that “the freedom of the gospel doesn’t mix well with totalitarian regime ideology.”

Especially in Nicaragua, which is “under what is essentially “a communist dictatorship.”

“Shutting down anything they deem a threat is just business as usual.”

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Image via Wikimedia Commons.