SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Mormon church is pulling the remaining 158 missionaries from Nicaragua because of ongoing violence and deteriorating conditions in the Central American country.
The move announced Tuesday by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints means the religion will no longer have proselytizing church members in the country. The faith pulled another 169 missionaries from Nicaragua two weeks ago.
Church spokesman Daniel Woodruff said the missionaries will be moved to temporary assignments elsewhere.
About 100 people have died in the last month of protests in Nicaragua. Human rights groups say an additional 80 people had been killed before that.
The Mormon church has had missionaries in Nicaragua since 1953.
They left in 1978 during the country's civil war and did not return until the late 1980s.