Published November 19, 2025
On November 19, 2025, EPPC Scholar Eric Kniffin submitted a public comment in response to a notice from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) describing its investigation “regarding Nicaragua’s acts, policies, and practices related to labor rights, human rights, and the rule of law” and seeking input on appropriate action against the Ortega-Murillo regime. According to USTR’s report, this regime “has taken steps to strip Nicaraguan clergy and religious actors of their citizenships … and punish[ed] free expression of religion or belief with unjust detention, reprisals, and threats.” In 2023, the regime also seized the assets of both the Jesuit-run University of Central America and Mountain Gateway Evangelical Church, which led worship services attended by over one million Nicaraguans.
As EPPC Fellow Eric Kniffin commented:
The USTR’s focus on religious liberty in Nicaragua reflects the United States’ conviction that religious liberty is not merely a statutory right or even a constitutional right but a fundamental human right. President George Washington, in his famous Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, recognized that “[a]ll possess alike liberty of conscience.” President Washington rejected language of religious “toleration,” “as if it were by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.” He proclaimed that “the Government of the United States … gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. …
From President Washington to President Trump, in the United States and around the world, the United States is committed to protecting the fundamental right to religious liberty. The USTR is right to pay careful attention to violations of this right in Nicaragua and should take its findings on this issue into account as it develops policy. Doing so would be an excellent way for USTR to advance its mission, respect longstanding American convictions, and advance this Administration’s priorities.
Other submitting comments in support include:
Eric Kniffin is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he works on a range of initiatives to protect and strengthen religious liberty as part of EPPC’s Administrative State Accountability Project.
