Members of the different parishes of the Diocese of Matagalpa revealed that the National Police prevents the delivery of medicine and food to the twelve Catholic faithful -six priests, two seminarians, two choristers and two cameramen— “kidnapped” by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murilloin the Episcopal Curia of that department.
At the head of the group “kidnapped” Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, and the priests: José Luis Díaz and Sadiel Eugarrios, first and second vicar of the San Pedro Cathedral, respectively; Óscar Escoto, parish priest of the Santa María de Guadalupe church; Ramiro Tijerino, rector of the John Paul II University and in charge of the San Juan Bautista parish; and Raul Gonzalez.
There are also seminarians Darvin Leyva and Melkin Sequeira; choristers Henri Corvera and Sujin Membreño; and cameramen Sergio Cárdenas and Flavio Castro.
On August 4, the regime’s police surrounded the curia and prevented the bishop and the other eleven people from leaving the place. A day later, the institution released a press release in which it reported that Álvarez He is being investigated for allegedly “organizing violent groups” and “carrying out acts of hate.” In addition, he indicated that “the people under investigation will remain in their homes.”
The bishop of Matagalpa affirmed, in a homily celebrated on August 6, that he does not know what he is being investigated for, emphasizing that “They will be making their own guesses.”
No medicine and little food
The twelve people locked up by the Police, according to information collected by CONFIDENTIALthey do not have medicines inside the Curia and the police institution has prohibited the entry of these.
Some of the religious, who together with the group are serving five days of confinement in the curia this Monday, suffer from chronic problems of hypertension that require the intake of daily medications.
Also, it was learned that the group has little food, which they have had to ration, because they do not know how long the regime intends to keep them locked up and without access to some type of food supply.
Residents and business owners near the curia indicated that the area remains “taken over by the Police” and that the agents take “photographs of those who must pass through there by force,” and businesses have even been prohibited from making home deliveries. , to avoid the circulation of motorized.
Persecution against the Catholic Church
The Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) reaffirmed this Sunday, through a press release, his support for Monsignor Álvarez, highlighting that the situation suffered by the religious “touches our hearts as bishops and the Nicaraguan Church.” The bishops, citing a speech by Benedict XVI, stated that the feeling of the Church that, by nature, “proclaims the Gospel of Peace and is open to collaboration with all national and international authorities to care for this great universal good” .
In the last two months, the regime of Ortega and Murillo undertook a repressive escalation against the Catholic Church that has left so far: two priests imprisoned, 18 nuns expelled from the country, two priests besieged, one of them now at home in jail and the closure of a dozen religious media.
The priest Manuel Salvador García Rodríguez, parish priest of the Jesús de Nazareno church —also known as El Calvario—, in Nandaime, Granada, was the first religious to face the justice of the regime, being sentenced on June 22 to two years in prison. for the alleged crime of threatening five people with a knife and a fine of 14,116 cordobas or 200 days fine.
Last July 6, 18 Missionaries of Charityan order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, were expelled from the country, being transferred from Managua and Granada to the border with Costa Rica, by the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME) and the Police.
Also, Monsignor Leonardo Urbina, priest of the Perpetuo Socorro parish in Boaco, has been in preventive detention since July 13, awaiting trial for the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl.
The priest Uriel Vallejos and a group of parishioners remained besieged by the Police for almost four days in the parish house of Jesús de la Divina Misericordia, in Sébaco.
In addition, between August 1 and 2, the regime closed 14 media outlets: eleven stations, ten belonging to the Diocese of Matagalpa and the independent Radio Vos, also took several cable television channels off the air and took off the air the local channel RB3 “El Canal de la Zona Láctea”, whose programming was broadcast through subscription television.
