Katie Britt Calls On Biden Admin To Sanction Nicaragua For Persecuting Christians

3 months ago

During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) urged the Biden Administration to impose sanctions on Nicaragua for persecution of Christians and Christian organizations.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. President. The senator from Alabama. As Americans we believe that every

00:09person on the planet is created by their creator with certain unalienable rights.

00:15Religious freedom is at the top of that list and for me I believe it must be

00:21protected at every turn. That's why I continue to be deeply concerned with

00:26what's happening in Nicaragua. Since 2018 the Nicaraguan regime has persecuted

00:33Christians including the Catholic Church and various Christian missions and

00:38charities. This lawless behavior has only escalated recently. In December

00:45Nicaraguan police arrested approximately a dozen individuals, mostly pastors

00:52associated with Mountain Gateway. These Christian faith leaders have been

00:57unjustly imprisoned since then and were handed down a sham sentence in March.

01:05The regime has imposed a fine of totally totaling nearly 1 billion dollars so

01:13that's about 6% of that country's entire GDP along with 12 to 15 years of

01:21imprisonment. Let's be very clear. These Christians are in prison today because

01:28of their faith. Their very freedom has been taken away because they chose to

01:33preach the gospel and the regime doesn't seem to want to stop there. In addition

01:40to those arrested and imprisoned, Nicaragua has issued arrest warrants for

01:45three more Americans. They are all associated with Mountain Gateway. So

01:50Mountain Gateway is an American nonprofit, a faith-based organization

01:54that was founded by an Alabamian and is based in Texas. Mountain Gateway recruits,

02:01trains, commissions and sends out ordained Christian ministers to spread

02:07the gospel. In Nicaragua the organization has advanced God's kingdom through

02:13discipleship, through feeding and clothing those in need, through providing

02:18assistance after natural disasters and sharing the gospel of our Lord and

02:23Savior Jesus Christ. These individuals doing this work should be celebrated, not

02:30persecuted. Earlier this year I joined a bicameral group of colleagues in

02:36criticizing Nicaragua's regime and this egregious violation of religious freedom

02:43led by Congressman Robert Adderholt and Congressman Barry Moore. Alabama's

02:49entire congressional delegation has been united against this and on this very

02:56important bipartisan issue. We've written letters, we've introduced resolutions in

03:03both chambers of Congress and we've called on the Biden administration to

03:07utilize all sanction enforcement powers and leverage in any diplomatic

03:14way. Any options that are in the toolbox should be used to force Nicaragua to

03:20remedy the situation. Today I want to emphasize that we cannot and we will not

03:27stop speaking up against this religious persecution in Nicaragua. We are calling

03:35on the Biden administration to do more now. This regime must stop targeting

03:43American citizens and it needs to begin faithfully upholding religious freedom

03:48in compliance with international law and universal standards of human rights. I

03:54yield the floor.

Katie Britt Calls On Biden Admin To Sanction Nicaragua For Persecuting Christians

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