In interview with Article 66the father Guillermo Blandon Gonzalez The parish priest of the Santa Lucía church in Boaco, Diocese of Granada, expressed that the refusal of the Daniel Ortega regime to enter Nicaragua, after returning from a trip to Israel, is due to the religious persecution that exists in the country.
Prior to his trip from Miami to Managua, the airline Avianca informed him through an email that he would not be able to board the flight due to an “immigration rejection” from his own country.
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After this situation, the priest stated that there was no valid argument to deny him entry. “They gave me no argument, they just notified me that I had no right to enter my country,” he said.
He also described this new onslaught as one more act of human rights violations and “violation of the Constitution – Politics – because all Nicaraguans have the right to leave and enter our country, but here there is no rule of law, rather what is lived is a dictatorship».
Regarding whether the Ortega regime is considering the legal exit of religious as a conspiracy, Blandón stated that “it would be crazy, but it is not irrelevant to think that they think that way.”
“I was on a Christian mission; I published videos of the group that was walking on holy land —Israel—. I never do anything in secret, I never do things that are not what it is,” said the priest, who spent a week in Israel and prior to his trip to Nicaragua spent five days in the United States with relatives.
Obstacles when leaving Nicaragua
Before leaving Nicaragua, Father Blandón pointed out that he had to wait more than 20 minutes to pass immigration control at the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport, so he did not rule out that when he returned he would have problems or not be allowed to enter.
«I had a little difficulty because the Migration worker stopped me, she went into an office and came out again, she asked me when I was coming back, I told her the date because those who don’t owe it don’t fear it, then she asked me where he lived, until he told me; “Have a nice trip,” she recounted.
In addition, he indicated that before this new repressive action he was the object of siege and persecution by the Ortega regime. “They chased me into the streets, when I went to mass. I have been besieged and that is public », he stressed.
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Regarding the knowledge of his case by the Nicaraguan ecclesiastical authorities, Baldón said that he does not know if Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes is already aware of the situation, but that he was able to communicate with the Bishop of Granada, Monsignor Jorge Solórzano.
“I immediately contacted my bishop and he gave me words of encouragement, he has been with me, he has prayed with me, he gave me some guidance and encouragement; he has been very brotherly with me », he pointed out.
“I am forcibly exiled”
On the other hand, the priest described his exile as a forced exile, because “I did not leave Nicaragua, they took me out, they did not let me enter. I am forcibly exiled.”
Faced with the possibility that the Nicaraguan immigration authorities will allow him to enter the country, the priest stated that there are no guarantees to believe the dictator Ortega.
“They would have to change the circumstances in Nicaragua to be able to return, because every regime does not have moral authority and therefore its word cannot be believed. I imagine that one day things will change and I will be able to return, “he said.
“This situation hurts me because I love my people, my land, my church, I need the warmth, the gallopinto,” lamented the priest.
“You cannot talk with a person who does evil”
After Pope Francis affirmed that there had been communication with the Ortega government, Father Blandón indicated that “it is necessary that there be a dialogue, but before that there must be certain conditions, for example the freedom of political prisoners, freedom of the Church ».
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«We must stop persecuting the Church, we must stop threatening, but we are facing a regime that does not want to talk and as long as things are not fixed, we will not be able to talk, because you cannot talk to a person who follows committing abuses and doing evil,” he insisted.
Finally, he called on the Church to continue praying to God to obtain his freedom “and trust that only God can make us free, we will not always be subject” The prelate is the second religious who is not allowed to enter the country by the dictatorship, the first It was the Jesuit father José Alberto Idiáquez, former rector of the Central American University (UCA).
