Police at the service of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship have kidnapped at least three priests in recent days, in an escalation of repression against the Catholic Church with the aim of carrying out a new group deportation, denounced the defender of religious freedom, Martha Patricia Molina.
Through her personal X account, the lawyer and researcher reports that the Sandinista Police kidnapped, this Thursday, August 1, the judicial vicar of the Diocese of Matagalpa and parish priest of the municipality of San Ramón, Monsignor Ulises Vega.
Monsignor Edgar Sacasa, pastoral vicar and parish priest of San Isidro, was also kidnapped. These two religious men join Father Frutos Valle, administrator Ad Omnia of the Diocese of Estelí, who was also kidnapped by the dictatorship’s henchmen on July 27, after prohibiting the celebration of a priestly ordination mass.
Dictatorship is reportedly preparing a new round of deportations of priests
According to the defender’s complaint, so far three religious leaders have been arrested by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, which Molina finds suspicious, since the attack is, above all, against the Dioceses that are related to Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, exiled to Rome.
In the case of Father Frutos, he was appointed by the Vatican as “administrator ad omnia” of the Diocese of Estelí, given the prolonged forced absence of the apostolic administrator Monsignor Álvarez.
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While Monsignors Vega and Sacasa belong to the Diocese of Matagalpa, whose bishop is also Monsignor Álvarez, the religious leader against whom the dictators Ortega and Murillo have been most cruel.
Molina believes that the dictatorship’s new attack against the priests of the Catholic Church is intended to prepare the deportation of a new group of religious figures, including those related to Monsignor Álvarez and some foreigners who are still providing religious services in the country.
“They (the dictatorship) plan to continue kidnapping and exiling some priests who are not Nicaraguan and who are still active in different parishes. A strong exile is in sight!” warned the activist, author of the compilation “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?”, in which she denounces in detail the repression of the dictatorship against Christianity in Nicaragua.
