According to a report by Christianity Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the Central American country of Nicaragua now bans tourists from bringing Bibles into the country, the Christian Post reports.

Bibles were included as part of a growing list of banned items that includes electronic items like cameras and drones and as well, newspapers and magazines.

According to CSW, notices are now posted at bus stations in neighboring countries informing people of the prohibited items. A representative for Honduras’ Tica Bus terminals stated that the Bible ban has been in effect for six months.

With a population of over seven million people, Nicaragua is the third largest country in the region behind Guatemala and Honduras.

The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party, under Daniel Ortega, won the federal election in 2006. Since then, there has been a significant deterioration of civil and religious liberties in the country.

With basically a communist government in power, this has included a crackdown on the Christian faith.

Christian leaders now face arbitrary detention. This includes the arrest of 24 religious leaders in 2024 according to report by the UN’s Human Rights Council. Released earlier this year, it criticized the Ortega government’s denial of basic religious and democratic freedoms

Two days after the report’s release, the Nicaraguan government announced it was leaving the Human Rights Council.

The government has also banned any religious processions that have not been organized by groups officially connected with the FSLN.

Over 1,300 religious organizations have also been forcibly closed. This includes the shuttering of La Roca de Nicaragua Church Association in 2019. This was led by protestant pastor Palacios Vargas. A year earlier, Vargas led groups demonstrating against the Ortega government’s restriction of democratic and religious freedoms.

Since its election 19 years ago, the FSLN has restricted democratic freedoms in the country. It has shut down newspapers critical of the government and arrested opposition leaders.

The government also requires government employees to join Ortega’s FSLN party.

There were also reports of massive fraud in the 2021 federal election that Ortega won. Since that election, many classify the government as an authoritarian dictatorship.

In 2024, Ortega instituted constitutional reforms declaring the country a revolutionary socialist state.

Under Ortega’s communist rule, the country now has the second lowest GDP per capita among Latin American countries. It also considered the second most corrupt government in the region behind Venezuela.