Two priests from the Diocese of Estelí, who at the time were related to the Catholic charity Caritas, were “required” by the Ortega-Murillo regime Police and placed under house arrest in a unit of the religious institution, where they are “under a police investigation process.
In a statement released on the night of Monday, May 22, the Diocese of Estelí reports that the priests Pastor Eugenio Rodríguez Benavides, parish priest of the Parroquia Divina Providencia, in Jalapa, and Father Leonardo Guevara Gutiérrez, parish priest of the Cathedral of Estelí “have been requested by the National Police on Saturday, May 20 and Monday, May 22, respectively, and transferred to Managua.”
The statement details that the two priests have been taken to one of the formation houses of the Church “while an investigation into administrative matters of the extinct Caritas Diocesana de Estelí is underway.”
Related news: Priest Eugenio Pastor Rodríguez has been “disappeared” since Saturday
Father Pastor Eugenia Rodríguez had been missing since Friday of last week. He had left his parish to run some errands and on the way he disappeared. No more was heard from him and it was already reported on social networks that he could have been kidnapped by the dictatorship’s Police, as indeed happened.
While the priest Guevara Gutiérrez was captured on Monday. According to the information that the Police gave the Church, it is that they are following an investigative process regarding the administration of Caritas, the social aid organization of the Church.
There could be more arrests
For the lawyer and researcher on Church issues, Martha Patricia Molina, what the Ortega-Murillo regime is actually pursuing with these arrests of priests and alleged investigations is to intimidate the priestly body and try to discredit them.
«What I observe is that (the dictatorship) intends to dismantle the Diocese of Estelí with these types of actions, all due to the continuous desire for hostilities against the Catholic Church. This time the perfect excuse is Cáritas, but the background is the search for an excuse to continue criminalizing priests”, explained the researcher.
The lawyer, author of the investigation “Nicaragua, a persecuted Church?” She believes that the arrests and alleged investigations against priests could continue in the coming days, in all the dioceses of the country where the Caritas organization has had offices.
“They are going to take the same measures with the other Cáritas that were also closed,” said the expert, because, according to her appreciation, they are not looking for crimes but to criminalize priests.
At the moment, according to the statement from the Diocese of Estelí, the priests are physically well, however, he expresses great concern because the restrictions that now weigh on the parish priests prevent them from serving their parishioners, who are unable to freely practice their faith .
