Sources linked to the San Juan Bautista church in Masaya denounced before Article 66 that the Police at the service of the Daniel Ortega regime have summoned at least 10 parishioners with the aim of threatening them and “buying” them so that they would bear witness to Father Harving Padilla.
“The parishioners who make up various pastoral groups have been summoned to the Masaya police station, however they have resisted speaking against Father Harving Padilla,” reported a source on condition of anonymity.
Related news: Father Harvesting Padilla manages to leave the San Juan Bautista church. Police stop siege
Among the questions that the police officers have made to the aforementioned parishioners is that they say “where is the money that Father Harving Padilla has received from the United States and the alleged weapons that were in the church.”
Other situations that have been reported are that some parishioners who have been summoned by the Police have been prohibited from leaving the city and university students who attend the San Juan church were expelled from some universities in retaliation for supporting Father Padilla .
“The arguments given by the authorities of some universities to expel the students is because, according to the Police, they were in favor of Father Harving (Padilla),” said the source on condition of anonymity.
This onslaught by the former parish priest of San Juan is described by parishioners as a persecution against the Catholic Church. “The objective of having cited some parishioners was so that the testimonies would serve to imprison the father, but thank God it was not achieved, because this is a Church that has matured in faith.”
Paramilitary surveillance continues in the San Juan church
After Father Harving Padilla managed to leave the San Juan Bautista church in Masaya on May 24, after several days of police and paramilitary siege, a source said that paramilitaries have come to ask if the priest will come to the temple or who will be. who will replace it.
«They have always maintained surveillance in the church to see when Father Harvest arrives, but it is already defined that the father will not return. At the moment, priests from the Asunción de Masaya parish are in charge,” the source emphasized.
Related news: Father Harving Padilla rules out exile, will be relocated to another parish
So far it is not known if Father Padilla will be assigned to another parish, but for now a possible exile has been ruled out despite the constant siege and defamation he has suffered from Ortega militants.
In addition to Father Harving Padilla, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is another of the Catholic leaders who has also become a target of the Ortega regime.
This Tuesday, June 7, the Ortega justice accused the priest Manuel Salvador Garcia Rodriguez, 57 years old, of alleged violence against a woman, identified as Martha Candelaria Rivas Hernández.
Father García Rodríguez is the first religious leader imprisoned by the Ortega regime, adding to the list of more than 180 political prisoners in Nicaragua.
