Exclusive – U.S. Pastor Persecuted by Nicaragua Urges America to ‘Continue Applying Pressure’ to Dictators

“Our nation has to stand for what it believes – that all men are created by God and have the right to freely worship Him,” Pastor Jon Britton Hancock told Breitbart News on Tuesday, urging the U.S. government to help his Evangelical organization, Mountain Gateway, after communist Nicaragua arrested its pastors on vague charges.

Mountain Gateway is currently locked in a legal battle with the regime of dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife, “vice president” Rosario Murillo, after a court convicted 11 of its pastors on charges of “aggravated money laundering.” Hancock has maintained repeatedly that his organization has not engaged in any illicit financial behavior, that the Nicaraguan government has access to all of the organization’s financial records, and that mounting a legal defense in the case has been impossible because the regime will not detail exactly what the charges are.

The persecution of Mountain Gateway followed years of increasingly repressive measures against the majority Christian population of the country. Following the wave of anti-communist protests in 2018, Ortega accused the Catholic Church, which offered sanctuary to peaceful dissidents, of attempting to politically destabilize the country, and has since engaged in mass arrests and deportations of priests and bishops, in addition to Catholic laymen. Ortega has exiled 97 clergyman so far, including two bishops, and declared the Vatican a terrorist organization.

The persecution expanded to Evangelicals in late 2023.

Hancock said he has been moved by the support Mountain Gateway has received from Congress and other sectors of the U.S. government, stating, “God is stirring their hearts for our people, and they are responding with action. I’m continually blown away at how God is connecting me with the right people.” He added, however, that the pressure on the Nicaraguan government and advocacy by the American government around the world for religious freedom must continue, as religious freedom is a core value of the country and a “basic human right.”

Hancock and wife Audrey founded Mountain Gateway in 2009 and moved its activities to Nicaragua about a decade ago, citing a calling from God to serve the country. The organization was active in Nicaragua for a decade by the time the Sandinista Marxist regime of dictator Daniel Ortega targeted it for destruction. For most of its time in the country, Mountain Gateway focused on humanitarian aid, from helping educate farmers in remote regions on the value of their crops to emergency response actions to help survivors of hurricanes and other natural disasters.

In 2023, Hancock refocused the organization to planning and hosting large-scale, outdoor events in Nicaragua’s major cities, including the capital, Managua. One of its last events reportedly convened over 200,000 people to engage in Christian worship – a particularly impressive feat given the violent repression of Catholic Christians occurring at the time.

The Ortega regime moved rapidly to shut down Mountain Gateway following the success of its crusades in late 2023, making it clear that its persecution of Christians was not limited to Catholics. In December, the Nicaraguan government charged 11 pastors with the organization on unclear charges of “money laundering” and financial improprieties. It also issued warrants for Hancock, his son Jacob Britton Hancock, and daughter-in-law Cassandra Mae Hancock.

The Hancocks are in the United States, advocating for the liberation of their fellow Mountain Gateway leaders. The 11 pastors are in prison. Last week – Holy Week for the non-Orthodox, a time for preparation for Easter, the most sacred Christian holiday – the communist regime announced that it had sentenced them all to serve between 12 and 15 years in prison for “aggravated money laundering.”

Two of those arrested, pastors Walner Omier Blandón Ochoa and wife Marisela de Fátima Mejía Ruiz, received 15-year sentences. The other nine – Marcos Sergio Hernández Jirón, Harry Lening Rios Bravo, Manuel de Jesús Ríos Flores, José Luis Orozco Urrutia, Álvaro Daniel Escobar Caldera, Juan Carlos Chavarría Zapata, Juan Luis Moncada, Orvin Alexis Moncada Castellano, and César Facundo Burgalin Miranda – received 12-year sentences. Each of the pastors also received an $80 million fine.

“When missionaries go to a foreign nation, we do everything we can to be respectful to that nation’s government and to operate under that nation’s laws,” Hancock explained to Breitbart News this week. “A lot of times the nations missionaries are going to are not friendly to the Gospel, and Christians are often persecuted, either by the government or by the citizens.”

“In our case, it is the Nicaraguan government who is doing the persecuting. Our U.S. government understands the importance of religious freedom as a basic human right,” he continued. “Right now, we need the U.S. government to continue applying pressure to the Nicaraguan government because of their blatant violation of the basic human rights of our pastors.”

Hancock expressed appreciation for the support he has already received from the government, including a letter sent by several lawmakers to President Joe Biden urging him to impose strict sanctions on the Sandinista regime for its human rights abuses.

“There was a letter sent to the Nicaraguan Ambassador that had 58 bipartisan signatures from Congress on it,” he noted. The letter – signed by several senators, including Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Katie Britt (R-AL), was published in mid-March.

“Mountain Gateway is the latest victim of the regime’s religious tyranny, and I urge you to use additional targeted sanctions and all available authorities to hold this repressive regime accountable,” the letter, an effort led by Sen. Scott, read.

Hancock noted to Breitbart News that “just seven days later, he [Biden] issued an executive order that placed greater restraints on high-ranking officials within the Nicaraguan government through the U.S. Treasury Department.”

Hancock said he believes America has a unique role to play in promoting religious freedom around the world.

“The U.S. has always been a trailblazer in religious freedom, setting the example that other nations follow. It’s why our nation was founded in the first place. Other nations watch how the U.S. responds to issues like this,” he told Breitbart News, adding, “It’s outlined like this in our Declaration of Independence: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ What it doesn’t say [is] that ‘only U.S. citizens were created equal’ – no, it says ‘all men.'”

“Our Founding Fathers felt that religious freedom was so important that it is outlined in the First Amendment,” he continued. “Our nation has to stand for what it believes – that all men are created by God and have the right to freely worship Him. So, when another government is clearly violating the basic human right to worship God, the U.S. government should take interest.”

The government of Nicaragua is one of the most prolific persecutors of Christians in the Western Hemisphere. The Christian aid organization Open Doors ranked it the 30th most repressive state for Christians in the world in its 2024 edition of its World Watch List – a whopping 20 spots higher than in 2023, the first year the country appeared on the list.

“What we see specifically there is with Ortega and the autocratic rule, and just really it’s come to the point where they see that Christian voice as a threat to the state,” Open Doors US CEO Ryan Brown told Breitbart News in January, “and therefore they have been increasingly proactive in doing what they can to reduce the influence as well to reduce the reach of the church within Nicaraguan society.”

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