13 de April 2025
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For over a decade, Carolina knew exactly how she’d spend her Holy Week: traveling across Nicaragua with a Judea troupe. But since 2023, those plans have vanished, after the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo effectively shut down the Judeas’ performances.
The popular Judeas -which recreate the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ- were held outside parishes, in the streets, squares and parks of Nicaraguan communities, counties and municipalities during Lent and Holy Week.
The suspension took the Judea groups by surprise, mainly because Vice President Rosario Murillo announced, 15 days before Holy Week, the calendar of Judeas presentations. “Here I also have a program of the traditional Judeas, which the Institute of Culture has sent me. We are going to be celebrating with artistic presentations”, said the government spokeswoman -inher soliloquy of March 14, 2023-, prior to detailing the places and groups that would be performing.
“We had our Holy Week agenda and we were prepared, but as Holy Week approached, the different agencies, the mayor’s offices and INTUR began to cancel our presentations. It was a cancellation via messages without any explanation”, states Carolina, who asked to omit her real name for fear of being imprisoned.
The presentations of the Judeas were organized and authorized by the municipalities together with the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (Intur) and the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture (INC).
“The ban, we understand, was an orientation from much higher up, from the central government, because the mayors’ offices, Intur and all these organizations do what they are told to do from higher up,” says the popular actress.
Ban on processions in Nicaragua
The de facto cancellation of the Judeas coincided with the regime’s ban—enforced through the National Police—on taking religious figures, such as statues and images, into the streets. That restriction remains in place to this day.
Since 2023, in Nicaragua, it is forbidden, under penalty of imprisonment, to hold processions outside of churches. Catholic activities, such as the Stations of the Cross, are restricted to the interior or atrium of parishes.
Nicaragua is one of 78 countries in the world where Christians are persecuted; in the Nicaraguan case it is because of the “dictatorial paranoia” of Ortega and Murillo, according to the World Persecution List 2025 prepared by Open Doors, an NGO based in the Netherlands.
Carolina clarifies that the Judeas are not “an exclusive activity” of Catholics, since in the groups “there are groups of all religions and all political creeds”.
“The suspension of the Judea has been a rather sad situation because, although we carry a religious message, we do not belong to any religion, neither Catholic nor evangelical,” the citizen stresses.
“La Judea,” she continues, “is a cultural activity, beyond any religion. It is not an activity in support of someone or something, it is a popular theater play”.
The Judeas in Nicaragua
The agenda of Judeas’ presentations was widely disseminated by the pro-Ortega propaganda media, but since March 2023 they have not published a single note referring to these activities, according to a CONFIDENCIAL review of the main pro-government media.
For 2025, Ortega’s propaganda has not mentioned a single activity related to the Judeas. The summer 2025 plan only includes festivals, fashion shows, gastronomic samples and concerts of chinamera and cumbia music.
There is no official record of how many Judea groups there are in Nicaragua, but according to pro-government media reports there are about ten groups annually, made up of 30, 50 or 70 popular actors and actresses of various ages, from children, young people, adults to senior citizens.
The rehearsals of these groups began in January or February of each year, and citizens were not charged for participating.
Carolina explains that some Judeas received some economic support from their municipalities, but they were symbolic amounts, as a kind of offering. “They gave between one or two thousand córdobas, and that money was reinvested and improvements were made in props and costumes”.
He points out that within the Judeas groups there are sympathizers of the Ortega-Murillo regime, who have been affected by the suspension. Also, hundreds of pro-Ortega citizens have been deprived of these popular theatrical works.
“In each of the groups there are people of all religions and political creeds. And the truth, even, government supporters are also resentful because they don’t understand the suspension and why we can no longer bring this type of cultural work or street theater, which has no connection to any religion,” he maintains.
