Five other priests from the Archdiocese of Managua were detained in the last few hours by the Nicaraguan Police, bringing the total number of religious imprisoned in the country to 15, including two bishops, the auxiliary bishop of Managua denounced this Saturday. Silvio Baezand the exiled lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina.
The Nicaraguan priests detained between Friday night and this Saturday are Silvio Fonseca, Mykel Monterrey, Raúl Zamora, Gerardo Rodríguez and Miguel Mántica, all from the Archdiocese of Managua, according to a report by Molina, author of the study ‘Nicaragua : A persecuted Church?’.
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“This week the Sandinista dictatorship has unleashed a fierce hunt against priests, taking several of them to prison, in addition to two bishops who were already imprisoned”For his part, said Báez, who was ordered by Pope Francis to leave Nicaragua in 2019 for security reasons, amid tensions between the government of President Daniel Ortega and the Catholic Church.
Báez, who resides in Miami and whom authorities declared “traitor to the country” and stripped of his nationality, said through the social network “The fury of the criminal Ortega dictatorship unleashed against the Church continues.”
The exiled hierarch begged “to the bishops and episcopal conferences of the world not to abandon us at this moment, to pray for the Church of Nicaragua and to show solidarity and raise their voices denouncing this persecution of the dictatorship against our Church.”
#Nicaragua. This week, the Sandinista dictatorship unleashed a fierce hunt against priests, taking several of them to prison, in addition to two bishops who were already imprisoned. I beg the bishops and the episcopal conferences of the world not to…
— Silvio José Báez (@silviojbaez) December 30, 2023
Will detained priests be sent to the Vatican?
According to researcher Molina, “Sandinismo is crucifying the clergy of the Archdiocese of Managua”led by the Nicaraguan cardinal, Leopoldo Brenes – who has not commented on those arrests – and asked: “What will the Sandinista Catholics say now?”
In his opinion, the “Sandinista dictatorship is preparing an exile or a massive criminal accusation of religious people”just as happened last October, when the Government released 12 other priests it had kept in prison and sent them to the Vatican.
Last week, authorities detained Bishop Isidoro Mora, two priests and two seminarians. And this week they have imprisoned nine other priests, seven of them from the Archdiocese of Managua.
#Nicaragua. The fury of the criminal Ortega dictatorship unleashed against the Church continues. Another beloved priest of the Archdiocese of Managua has been kidnapped today: Mons. Silvio Fonseca. My fraternal closeness and my prayer for him. Freedom for him and for all priests!
— Silvio José Báez (@silviojbaez) December 30, 2023
Government does not confirm the arrest of the priests
Neither the Government nor the National Police confirm or deny the alleged arrest of those 14 religious, except that of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who on February 10 was sentenced to 26 years and 4 months in prison, stripped of his nationality, and suspended his citizenship rights for life for crimes considered treason.
That sentence was handed down one day after Álvarez refused to get on a plane that was going to take him, along with 222 other released Nicaraguan political prisoners, to the United States, which provoked the indignation of President Ortega, who on national television described him as “superb”, “unhinged” y “energumeno”.
The relations between the Government of Daniel Ortega and the Catholic Church are experiencing moments of great tension, marked by the expulsion and imprisonment of priests, the prohibition of religious activities and the suspension of diplomatic relations.
Nicaragua has been going through a crisis since April 2018, which is accentuated after the November 2021 elections, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second, along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison. EFE
