2023-12-30 22:03:00
Miguel Mántica, one of the six priests detained in the last hours in Nicaragua or six other priests
Daniel Ortega’s regime detained six other priests in the last few hours, in a new offensive against the Catholic Church. According to local NGOs, the Nicaraguan Police arrested, between Friday night and Saturday morning, Monsignors Silvio Fonseca, Raúl Zamora and Gerardo Rodríguez, and the priests Mykel Monterrey, Miguel Mántica and Marcos Díaz.
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The first five belong to the Archdiocese of Managua while the last professed faith in the diocese of León, in the northwest of the country.
With these, denounced the auxiliary bishop of the capital, Silvio Báez, there are now 15 religious behind bars, among whom also stand out Bishop Isidro Mora, the vicar general of Managua Carlos Avilés and the priests Héctor Treminio, Fernando Calero and Pablo Villafranca.
With these, there are already 15 religious prisoners, among them Monsignor Carlos Avilés, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Managua and opponent of Ortega
“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,” denounced Báez, who was declared a traitor to the country, stripped of his nationality. and has been living in exile since 2019 by orders of Pope Francis, who ensured his safety at a time when tension increased due to social protests.
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“The fury of the criminal Ortega dictatorship unleashed against the Church continues,” he continued and asked “the bishops and episcopal conferences of the world not to abandon us at this moment” and “to order for the Church of Nicaragua and to show solidarity and Raise your voice denouncing this persecution of the dictatorship against our Church.”
For its part, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for Central America condemned the day before the “forced disappearance” of members of the Church, which violates “the right to religious freedom, a pillar of any democratic State”, while the opposition Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy of Nicaragua rejected “the persecution, harassment, siege and criminalization”, said it followed “recent events with deep concern” and demanded “respect for their physical integrity, psychic” as well as “his immediate and unconditional freedom.”
The UN condemned the forced disappearance of members of the Church and the new wave of arrests of priests in Nicaragua and demanded respect for religious freedom in the country (AP)
Exiled lawyer Martha Patricia Molina evaluated this recent intensification of raids and considered that “the Sandinista dictatorship is preparing an exile or a massive criminal accusation of religious people,” similar to what happened in October, when he ordered the release of 12 priests and their departure from the country to the Vatican.
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The Church and the Nicaraguan ruling party have maintained a tense relationship for more than four years, which has led to dozens of religious people being persecuted and imprisoned for professing their faith and serving as one of the main sources of opposition.
One of the most emblematic cases of this repression was that of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who on February 10 was sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison, in addition to being stripped of his nationality and having his citizenship rights suspended for life after considering him a traitor to the country. The Court’s ruling was announced one day after the ruling party defined the release of 222 political prisoners bound for the United States, something that the religious rejected.
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