Seven of the eight priests who were forcibly removed from their parishes in the departments of Matagalpa and Chontales during the first week of August were banished by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, who had prescribed them “seminary for prison.”
The priests exiled to Rome, confirmed student leader Lesther Alemán, are: Edgar Sacasa, Ulises Vega, Marlon Velásquez, Victor Godoy, Harvin Torrez, Jairo Pravia and Silvio Romero.
He also denounced the dictatorship’s actions as “de facto statelessness,” since the Ortega regime has exiled and rescinded the nationality of more than 300 Nicaraguans, including 222 former political prisoners who were sent on a direct flight to the United States.
In January 2024, the raid continued by expelling 18 priests and sending them to the Vatican. Among them are two bishops: Monsignor Rolando Álvarez and Monsignor Isidoro Mora.
Lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, a human rights defender and researcher on issues related to the persecution of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, reported on social media prior to Alemán’s confirmation that the priests were removed from the Interdiocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fatima, where the Ortega regime kept them imprisoned.
Arrests began on August 1st
The Ortega regime has resumed its hunt against the Catholic Church since late July. Recent arrests include that of Friar Silvio Josué Romero Juárez, parish priest of the San Francisco de Asís parish in Juigalpa, Chontales.
On August 1, Monsignor Edgar Luis Sacasa Sierra, pastoral vicar of the Diocese of Matagalpa and parish priest of the San Isidro Labrador church, was also arrested while he was in the rectory; and Monsignor Ulises René Vega Matamoros, judicial vicar and chancellor of the Diocese of Matagalpa and parish priest of the San Ramón Nonato parish in Matagalpa.
Related news: Dictatorship intensifies kidnappings against priests as it prepares a new exile, denounces defender Martha Molina
On August 2, the regime ordered the arrest of three priests from Sébaco, including: Father Victor Salvador Godoy Morales, parish vicar of the Immaculate Conception of Mary Church; Father Marlon Velasquez Flores, administrator of the Santa Lucia parish in Ciudad Darío and administrator of the San Francisco de Asís Nursing Home in Villa Chagüitillo; and Father Jairo Pravia Flores, parish priest of the Immaculate Conception of Mary Church.
Also on August 5, Father Harvin Torrez, rector of the San Luis Gonzaga Philosophy Seminary and parish priest of the Santa María de Guadalupe Church in the Guanuca neighborhood of Matagalpa, was arrested.
Among the priests exiled to Rome, confirmed by Aleman, there is no mention of priests Raul Francisco Villegas, of Mexican origin and parish priest of the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Matiguás, who was arrested on August 2; and Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, administrator ad omnia of the Diocese of Estelí, who was arrested on July 26.
