The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has carried out a real raid against priests of the Catholic Church in recent days. In the last 48 hours alone, five priests have been reported arrested by the police in the service of the regime.
According to complaints made by defenders of religious freedom, this Friday Father Jairo Pravia, parish priest of the Immaculate Conception Church in Sébaco, and Father Víctor Godoy, vicar of that same parish, were kidnapped.
In addition, according to citizen reports sent to the media, on the same day, the religious Marlon Velásquez, administrator of the Santa Lucía parish in Darío, was kidnapped.
Related news: Dictatorship intensifies kidnappings against priests as it prepares a new exile, denounces defender Martha Molina
According to the media 100% Noticias, the Police arrived at the parish of Ciudad Darío at around 1:30 in the afternoon this Friday, they entered and shortly after they left with the priest, they put him in a white van and took him away.
In the case of the priests of Sébaco, citizens reported through social media that, since morning hours, the parish was surrounded by police officers, and at noon they entered the religious facilities to arrest the priests.
According to 100% Noticias sources, Father Pravia celebrated mass at 6:00 in the morning, then allegedly left to make a pastoral visit to a rural community, from where he returned around 11:30 in the morning. The Sandinista henchmen waited for the two priests to be inside the church to enter and kidnap them.
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With the kidnapping of these three priests, there are now six religious figures who have been deprived of their freedom by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.
Lawyer and researcher Martha Molina, who follows the repression against the Catholic Church, warns that the new wave of kidnappings carried out by the Sandinista Police is part of a strategy that seeks to exile a new group of religious figures that will include mainly foreign priests who still serve in Nicaragua and more priests from the Dioceses of Matagalpa and Estelí, who have been in charge of the exiled bishop Rolando Álvarez.
