The militantly anti-clerical president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, has ordered the closing of the Vatican embassy in Managua and the Nicaraguan embassy to the Holy See in Rome, according to Reuters.

The government of Nicaragua said that it had proposed “a suspension of relations” with the Holy See, the Associated Press reported. Nicaragua recently sentenced a Catholic bishop,  Rolando Álvarez, to 26 years in prison for ‘treasonous’ activities, something he has fiercely denied.

According to the AP, Vatican sources confirmed there had been a request from Nicaragua to shut down the two embassies.

The proposal to suspend relations between the Vatican and Nicaragua follows just days after Pope Francis likened Nicaragua’s Sandinista government to Nazi Germany in an interview. He also called Ortega “unstable.”