Two Catholic priests based in northern Nicaragua were arrested by the police between Saturday and Monday and are under investigation by the authorities, according to a statement posted on the Facebook account of the diocese of the department of Estelí.
The priests are Eugenio Rodríguez Benavídez, parish priest of the Divine Providence Church, and Leonardo Guevara Gutiérrez, of the Estelí Cathedral church.
The Catholic Church assures that both priests “have been required by the National Police on Saturday 20 and Monday 22 May respectively.”
The note added that they were “transferred to one of the formation houses of the Church, while a time of investigation on administrative matters of the extinct Caritas Diocesana of Estelí elapses.”
“We know that they are fine in their physical integrity, but at the order of the authorities,” said the statement that asked the parishioners to accompany this process with their prayers.
In turn, the text dated Monday, May 22, advised to remain “calm, avoiding echoing any distorted and tendentious information that creates a climate of restlessness and anxiety.”
Until the moment of publishing the Nicaraguan government had not referred to the arrest of the priests.
See also: Nicaragua, stories in exile
Human rights experts have warned about these investigations, arguing that from the beginning of the processes “irregularities have been seen.”
Lawyer Yader Morazán, an expert in legal matters, maintains that in order to carry out investigations, the authorities do not need to capture anyone, “except if they are people with roots and a notable reputation.”
“In a ‘normal’ state, arrests without a warrant are taken as red-handed crime, or in the face of a serious situation that requires immediate intervention,” Morazán said in Twitter.
For her part, lawyer Martha Patricia Molina told the media republic 18 that the government with this seeks to dismantle the Diocese of Estelí, which was administered by the bishop Rolando Alvarezwho was sentenced by the Ortega government to 26 years in prison.
The government of Daniel Ortega Ortega has accused the Catholic Church of supporting the 2018 social protest, which his government described as a failed coup. In March 2022, the government expelled the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Sommertag from the country and a year later announced the “suspension of relations” with the Vatican and the closure of their respective diplomatic missions, days after Pope Francis described his government as “rude dictatorship”.
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