Daniel Ortega’s regime continued its escalation of aggression against the Catholic Church and accused the priest Enrique Martinez Gamboa64, for the alleged crime of conspiracy in competition with the spread of false news.
The three-page accusation was filed by the Public Ministry from 10:56 in the morning of October 14, that is, less than a day after the violent arrest of the religious at the hands of police agents at his home, located in south highway in Managua.
Martínez is the eleventh priest imprisoned in Ortega’s judicial escalation against the Catholic Church, including the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, who has been forcibly detained in the house of his relatives in Managua by the Police since Friday, August 19 .
Father Martínez Gamboa denounced with a firm voice the State’s human rights violations against Nicaraguans in 2018. A relative of the priest filed a habeas corpus appeal on Monday, October 17, which is “in process”, resorting to this way before the magistrate Octavio Rothschuh Andino against the actions of the head of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), General Commissioner Luis Alberto Pérez Olivas.
the day of the violent capture of the priest Martinez, the police arrived at his house and entered breaking down the door. They even took him to the room where he was and they took him out with blows and shoves until they put him in a van, while he shouted “murderous policemen” at them and several times “Long live Christ the King!” sources close to CONFIDENTIAL They denounced that they have him detained “in his underpants.”
Prosecutor and judge, executioners of political prisoners
According to the case file filed under case number 022576-ORM4-2022-PN, the prosecutor in charge is Heydi Estela Ramírez Olivas. The judge is Karen Chavarría Morales, head of the Ninth Criminal Hearing District in Managua. Both have a history of subordinating their judicial decisions to the will of the ruling party.
Ramírez Olivas is remembered for her persecution of the independent press in cases such as the recent persecution of workers at the newspaper La Prensa, but also for threatening journalists during interrogations carried out in June 2021 during the fabrication of the money laundering case against the Foundation. Violeta Barrios of Chamorro.
In 2021, Judge Chavarría Morales precisely ordered the capture of the presidential candidate and former president of the organization, Cristiana Chamorro Barrios.
Chavarría Morales was sanctioned by the United States on March 9, when she was added to the list of corrupt and anti-democratic actors known as the “Engel List.”
In the Press release signed then by Ned Price—spokesman for the State Department—they accused the court of “abusing its authority and subverting legal processes to act against political opponents of the Ortega-Murillo regime and disqualify opposition candidates from the November 2021 elections.”
Sources of CONFIDENTIAL They said in recent days that the priest Martínez is chronically ill. He suffers from diabetes, hypertension, has kidney damage and has circulation problems.
For him first of december nextThe oral and public trial against three priests, a deacon, two seminarians, and a cameraman, who accompanied Bishop Rolando Álvarez on the day of the police assault on the Curia of Matagalpa, when he was transferred to Managua by force, is also scheduled.
In addition to the arrest of the 11 priests, the regime forced the exile of the auxiliary bishop of Managua Silvio Báez in 2019, expelled the apostolic nuncio last March, has banished to othersexpelled the missionaries of charity in July and closed seven radio stations in the Diocese of Matagalpa.
In 2018, in the midst of the human rights crisis caused by Ortega’s repression, the priests denounced the abuses and helped the victims in the parishes. The Dictatorship accused them of “coup plotters” and the tyrant even said last September that the religious asked the demonstrators to “put lead in him.”
“They came out of the churches armed to launch attacks against police barracks. And some priests, bishops, calling people to put lead in me, what were they waiting for to kill me, look what kinds of bishops and priests, they said it calmly. Eh, say a gang of murderers, covered up with the Catholic Church,” Ortega said on September 29.
Ortega gave those hateful statements in the 43rd anniversary ceremony of the Police, in which he affirmed that the Catholic Church was the “perfect dictatorship”, while wondering who chose “the priests, the bishops and the Pope” in the celebration of the fourth year of the police state of facto with which he violated since then the right to assemble and protest in Nicaragua, while he increased the repression to stay in power, alleging interference when he was asked to answer for the crimes committed by the State.
