RELIGIOUS RIGHTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403000001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 13, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403000001-7
ARTICLE APP ED CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
ON PAGE 13 May 1987
1 1
`/ JOHN NUOME$
Religious rights
A T the funeral of former Central Intelligence
Agen CIA Director William J. Casey, a
saw t enounce Mr.
Casey's support for the Nicaraguan contras.
Delivering a eou-Iogy, Bisho John McGann d
tribute to Casey's patriotism and conviction, but said
he could not disguise his fundamental disagreement
with Casey on the contra issue.
Whether that was the appropriate occasion for the
bishop to make that point is a matter of debate. But he
is certainly entitled to his view, and it is the strength
of our democratic system that a diversity of view-
points should be allowed to swirl in public.
Clearly it does. when demonstrators outside the
gates of the CIA in Langley. Va., can shout in favor of
ayid= by the Merv iL , *unm_ ns over .ne mnnns,
Other proSandinista Americans head for Managua to
work for the Sandinistas, even as they protest United
States involvement with the contras.
Righon McGann conceded at the funeral that Case
"must have thought us bishops blind to the poten
.for a Communist threat in this hemisphere. That is
probably true.
But not all Catholics share the bishop's view. The
Sandinista regime is, after all, the one that insulted
and embarrassed their I bpe on his visit to Nicaragua.
And other Catholics have a harsher view of what the
Sandinistas are doing to their religion, and the reli-
gious and human rights of others.
For example, a lay Catholic human rights group
called the Puebla Institute has just published a report
on human rights abuses by the Sandinistas. It is
intriguing reading.
After talking to Catholic priests and lay readers in
the Nicaraguan countryside, institute personnel de-
tected a pattern of harassment and persecution. Ac-
cording to their findings more than 300,000 Nicara-
guans - some 10 percent of the population - had fled
the country by early this year. The institute decided
to interview some of these people in United Nations
refugee camps in Costa Rica and Honduras.
number of Protestant evangelicals complained of
religious discrimination by government officials and
Sandinista defense committees. Some refugees said
they were pressured by state security officials to end
their membership in a particular church, to stop
preaching, or to spy on the congregation and report
back to state security Others were told they could
continue their prayer meetings but were ordered to
stop proselytizing. They were threatened with impris-
onment if they disobeyed.
Ramiro Vallejos, an evangelical pastor from Jalapa,
said he was held for 25 days without being charged.
He said his interrogators taunted him about his faith,
saying such things as: "If you believe in God, why
isn't your God helping you get out of jail?"
Josi Luis Lacaya Garcia, a member of the evangeli-
cal Free Apostolic Church of Managua, was detained
and pressured to stop going to prayer meetings. He
was told to stop attending church and instead to
attend Sandinista defense committee meetings. His
interrogators ridiculed the Bible in front of him.
Andres Seledr6n, a deeply committed evangelist,
was detained for eight months because he refused to
fight for the Sandinistas. His interrogators asked him:
"Do you believe in God? Show us he is here!"
The Puebla Institute also looked at the overall
question of human rights. While cautious about re-
counting refugee allegations of torture, the report
cites 10 cases of special concern.
One man, serving a three-year sentence on counter-
revolutionary charges, claimed he was hanged by his
thumbs for two days, his toes ' the
ground. His guards beat him with brass knuckles. He
says he was held in a completely dark cell for 28 days.
In another cell, he was held for nine days in water and
excrement up to his ankles and given only enough
water to wet his lips every 24 hours.
It is stories such as these that we must also hear as
we debate the role of the church and the Sandinistas
in Nicaragua.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403000001-7