The spokesperson for the Nicaraguan regime, Rosario Murillo, urged Nicaraguan citizens to participate in the patron saint festivities in honor of the Black Christ of Esquipulas and San Sebastián, which are taking place in some municipalities of the country such as El Sauce or Diriamba, while At the same time, it prohibits the Catholic Church in other towns from walking the streets with the image of the patron saints.
This Wednesday, January 11, during his speech by the official media, Murillo highlighted that Nicaraguan families “are preparing to celebrate traditional festivals, patron saint festivals in this month of January, that there are important celebrations such as the Black Christ of Esquipulas, in El Sauce (León), which is also celebrated in Tipitapa and in other municipalities at other times of the year.
In addition, he recalled that the festivities in honor of San Sebastián are celebrated in the municipalities of Acoyapa and Diriamba. There will be “a number of horse riding venues in municipalities, different municipalities of the country,” he explained.
Related news: Police cordon off temple in Monimbó to prevent San Sebastián procession
Murillo ignored that on the afternoon of Tuesday, January 10, the Police of his regime prevented the procession of the image of San Sebastián in Masaya.
The Ortega dictatorship sent a strong deployment of officers to surround the Santa María de Magdalena Church, located in Monimbó; thus preventing the traditional procession of San Sebastián from taking place as usual every January 10.
The Eucharist of the revered image took place at three in the afternoon, hours before the police presence that took Father Pedro Méndez and members of the Brotherhood by surprise. Police patrols with metal fences first prevented vehicular passage on the different sides of the temple and dozens of riot police later positioned themselves in front of the Church.
At the end of the mass, the solemn descent of San Sebastián was carried out with a brief tour of the temple, later the faithful Catholics took the image to the main gate and at that moment, the general commissioner Juan Valle Valle appeared, who shouted that there was no permission for the image to go out in procession.
In the last months of 2022, the Daniel Ortega regime has prohibited dozens of religious activities organized by the Catholic Church in honor of the patron saints of various municipalities or departments in the country.
At the end of September, he canceled the parade of San Jerónimo, patron saint of the Masaya department, supposedly for “public security reasons”, reducing the festivities inside the temple and surrounding the place with dozens of agents from the Ortega Police Special Operations Directorate. .
The same provision to prohibit religious processions has been reported in Managua, Masaya, Granada, Carazo, Matagalpa, Chontales and Nueva Segovia, among other departments.
