The Nicaraguan priest Uriel Vallejos, A critic of the administration of President Daniel Ortega, he announced his exile this Sunday on his Twitter account, in which he also wrote an emotional message in which he called for the release of all religious detained in recent months.
Goodbye my Nicaragua! It hurts me to breathe in the front country”, he wrote as a priest on Twitter, where he assured that “people do not negotiate”, referring to the country’s political prisoners.
The abrupt departure of Vallejos, head of the Divina Misericordia church, in Sébaco, occurs after agents of the National Police surround the parish house where he was last August 1, denying him the exit.
At that time, the government had ordered the closure of several Catholic stations and the police wanted to seize several radio equipment in Vallejos’s possession by forcing their way into a chapel in the city.
Vallejos finally managed to leave the place on August 4 bound for Managua, where he was temporarily to leave the country.
A critical priest
The religious was one of the most critical voices left in the country. In October 2021, a month before the presidential elections where Ortega was re-electedthe priest classified the process as an “electoral farce”, after the arrests of the main opposition presidential candidates.
“What there will be is an electoral farce… there are many supporters of the government system and they say they will vote, that they will do it as a drill, they have told me. They tell me that they live in torment, that they are blackmailed, threatened, ”said the priest in a past interview with the voice of america, before the elections.
Similarly, he denounced that the Ortega government has unleashed “a frontal persecution against the Catholic Church,” but ruled “that they will not be able to silence them.”
Let’s look at Nero [emperador romano] and today there is only the rubble. Jesus identifies with the poor, this persecution is painful, we are all persecuted, if you start preaching you will be questioned by the powerful. We cannot be silent”, Vallejos sentenced.
The priest’s departure from the country comes days after the Nicaraguan justice system, accused of being controlled by Ortega, sentenced a second priest, Father Monsignor José Leonardo Urbina, to 30 years in prison, who was accused of alleged sexual crimes.
Previously, Father Manuel García, parish priest of the Jesús Nazareno church, was sentenced.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
