On April 28, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, Monsignor Silvio José Báez Ortega, He turned 66 years old. Through social networks, Nicaraguans dedicated warm congratulations and messages to the religious leader, who has been in exile since 2019 due to the repression that the Sandinista regime unleashed against him and the Catholic Church.
With the passing of the years and his dozens of homilies, visits to the most remote communities and his prophetic voice, Monsignor Báez earned the respect and admiration of the Catholic faithful, the Nicaraguan opposition and young people.
Related news: Silvio Báez, the “bishop of the people”, turns 66 surrounded by the love and admiration of Nicaraguans
He participated as a member of the Mediation Commission in the first National Dialogue. He also added his voice to denounce the repression of the civic protests of 2018 and continued to denounce the persecution against the Catholic Church and the arbitrary imprisonment of religious people, especially that of the Matagalpino bishop. Rolando Alvarez, who spent more than 500 days as a political prisoner.
His critical homilies towards the rulers and defenders of the Nicaraguan people made him a target of attacks by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. They have carried out smear campaigns against him, manipulated videos and collected signatures to ask Pope Francis to remove him from office.
On the contrary, the highest Catholic leader asked that Monsignor Báez leave the country, to protect his physical integrity and his life. When announcing his exile, the bishop revealed that the Ortega-Murillo regime had planned an attack against him, a fact that was alerted to him by the United States Embassy in Managua. He even reported that several drones flew over his residence.
The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo appointed Danilo Javier Chang Cash as ambassador of Nicaragua in South Africa, according to presidential agreement No. 57-2025, published in La Gaceta, Official Gazette No. 75 of this Monday, April 29, 2024 .
Chang Cash was appointed to the position in the African country on April 25, according to the official note from the Ortega regime. Before its publication, Rosario Murillo had already announced that her diplomat received the placet from South Africa.
In November 2022, the Nicaraguan regime decided to grant Chang Cash the position of Ortega ambassador in El Salvador. Previously, he served as minister counselor with consular functions of the Nicaraguan diplomatic headquarters in the neighboring country.
Chang Cash is described in his Instagram account as a “person of faith, principles, Christian and revolutionary values. Public servant of the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity.
The former head of the National Police, Aminta Granera, reappeared on Sunday, April 28. After her departure from the institution, we had only heard from her in July 2019 when she waited on the road to Masaya, in Managua, for the El Repliegue caravan to pass by to greet Daniel Ortega.
Granera, that day, stood on the street waiting for the Mercedes Benz bus that took the dictatorial couple. Upon seeing him, she blew kisses to the presidential couple. Subsequently. she was seen in the Cathedral of León in La Gritería.
After those two events, no information was known about her. Granera served as the head of the Police in the first 10 days of the repression, from April 18 to 28, when her resignation from the position she had held since 2006 was unofficially announced.
At the time of his resignation, there were already 46 murders at the hands of the Police and paramilitaries, who acted under the protection of the institution he directed, according to reports at that time from the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), which was illegalized and confiscated in December 2018.
Related news: Aminta Granera, the former head of the Nicaraguan Police, reappears in the first days of the 2018 repression
The new appearance of the former police chief, according to videos and photos published in X, occurred at the wedding of her daughter Julia Dolores with the Chinandegan Julio Callejas. The event was held in Gran Pacifica, a luxury resort in the municipality of Villa El Carmen, department of Managua.
In one of the videos, Granera can be seen with a light band in his hand and dancing to the rhythm of “Tití asked me” by the Puerto Rican trapper Bad Bunny.
