Nicaragua cancels WYD lead-up events

World Youth Day (WYD) once wildly forecast as drawing  400,000 -500,000pilgrims  from across the world to Panama, has so far seen only  slightly more than 200,000 registrations, most of them from the host country. in spite of cheerleading by President Varela and First  Lady   Lorena Castillo, it might not provide the fillip needed by Panama’s ailing tourism industry and attendance at the papal mass which has drawn over a million worshippers  in other locations  like Toronto and Krakow is likely to fall far short.

The latest blow to the January 2019 event comes from the Church of Nicaragua which has announced it will not be participating in lead-up events. due to the political and social crisis that the country is going through.

“The Catholic Church (of Nicaragua) decided not to participate in the WYD because of the social and political problems they have at the moment,”  coordinator Domingo Espitia, told Nicaraguan journalists.

Espitia indicated that from January 16 to 20 several public events were scheduled in Nicaragua and Costa Rica prior to the World Youth Day.

However, “due to the social problems that it is experiencing, Nicaragua has desisted from participating.

Espitia also said that many pilgrims from northern Central America, who had planned to travel to Panama by road, will no longer do so to avoid going through Nicaragua.

Nicaragua has been going through a serious political and social crisis since April with massive demonstrations against the government of Daniel Ortega, leaving at least 320 dead and hundreds of detainees.

The Pope will arrive in Panama on the  January 23. A day later he will be received by the youth pilgrims on the Cinta Costera.

According to Panama organizers, to date, there are 207,000 registered pilgrims for WYD, mostly from the host country, Costa Rica, Mexico and Colombia.