The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo continues its repressive escalation against the Catholic Church and this time denied entry to Nicaragua to the priest Juan Carlos Sánchez, vicar of the San Francisco de Asís parish, in Managua, forcing him into exile.
The information was disclosed by the lawyer and researcher Martha Molina, who has specialized in the domination and monitoring of the Andean government’s repression against the religious institution.
According to the information received by the lawyer, the priest Sánchez was returning to his country this weekend, after a trip to Bolivia, where he participated in a priestly ordination. Later, he traveled to Miami, United States, to visit relatives.
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And when he was preparing to return to Nicaragua, the airline informed him that his entry had been denied.
Molina confirmed to Article 66 that, the General Directorate of Migration and Aliens, was in charge of prohibiting the entry into the country of the religious. This case is added to that of eleven more Nicaraguan priests exiled in this way.
To date, at least 84 religious, including priests and nuns, have been forced to leave the country to save themselves from the repression carried out by the Ortega dictatorship from 2018 to date.
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In the study “Nicaragua: a persecuted Church?, by researcher Molina, it is detailed that some 44 religious and 40 nuns have left the country in the last five years, but mainly between 2022 and this year.
The campaign of aggressions that the dictatorship maintains against the Catholic Church includes the imprisonment of five priests, among them the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez.
