Priests of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church remain under “persecution” by the government of Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) denounced on Thursday, after at least two priests were harassed by police forces during this week.
“Nicaragua, let’s support the church, let’s support the priests who, like Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, resist with dignity, coherence and courage the persecution imposed by the Ortega Murillo regime,” Cenidh said on Twitter.
The priest Uriel Vallejos, from the city of Sébaco, remained locked in a parish house for more than 50 hours after the National Police forced the locks of the chapel Infant Jesus of Prague, which he directed, as part of an operation to appropriate the equipment of several radio stations that were forced to close by order of the government of Daniel Ortega.
“We continue to be guarded, here we are, we only have to ask the Lord for strength. Thank you for his prayers. Our Lady of Fatima is accompanying us,” the priest, who remains without electricity, said on Twitter.
Vallejos was unable to leave and survived the confinement with bread and water, according to the local newspaper the press. It was unofficially known that the priest managed to leave the place this Thursday morning.
In the city of Matagalpa, where the bishop of that diocese, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, one of the most critical of Ortega’s management, is located, the police stationed themselves outside the priest’s house where he is, blocking access to the parishioners and the rest of the priests.
“What need is there to deploy all those police forces? If it was so easy to leave my house, to leave the door of my normal curia, like any house so that they would enter to pray, so that we would enter to adore the Lord. They surround the curia as if it were a barracks, as if we were conspiring against whom, if we love them, we love them”, said the prelate.
The persecution against Álvarez, one of the most critical voices in Nicaragua, has been going on for several months. In May he holed up in a Managua temple for hours after police followed him wherever he moved.
Ortega’s offensive against the Church
Ortega has been on an offensive against the Catholic Church since 2018, when the protests against his government began.
The president has called the priests “devils in cassocks”; and that same speech has been replicated by his wife, also Vice President Rosario Murillo, who has denounced an “attempted coup” against his government.
So far two priests accused of various crimes have been arrested.
Some analysts have told the voice of america that Ortega is taking more radical stances against the clergy.
“Recently the representative of the Vatican was expelled and now the persecution against the leaders has begun, the course is bleak”, commented to the VOA the opponent and ex-political prisoner Gabriel Putoy.
Martha Patricia Molina, an expert on religious issues who conducts a count of attacks on the Church, said that as of May 2022, there have been 190 attacks and assaults on the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
“To date, only the attacks have been exposed from a religious perspective, which possibly the most serious sanction would be excommunication; but we cannot limit ourselves to talking only about religion because what is being committed against the Catholic Church are crimes and are typified in our penal laws”, he stressed.
Yader Morazán, a specialist in judicial matters, affirmed that the measure imposed against the priests could even fit into the crime of “simple kidnapping”, according to the Nicaraguan Penal Code, which establishes that “whoever removes, retains or hides a person against his or her will, will incur in prison from three to six years and a fine of one hundred to three hundred days.
And Morazán adds that the crime is more serious “when it is carried out by an authority, official or public employee taking advantage of his position.”
Brian A. Nichols, undersecretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the US State Department, said on Twitter on Wednesday that Ortega has delivered “a brutal attack on Catholic clergy.”
“It is another blow to the freedoms of religion and expression in Nicaragua. How can men and women in uniform (many people of faith) carry out such orders?” Nichols questioned in reference to the cancellation of several Church stations.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
