Since May 15, the Daniel Ortega regime has intensified the police siege that it maintains outside the San Juan Bautista church in Masaya. The parish priest Harving Padilla, in charge of the temple, denounced that a group of uniformed men arrived in two patrols, took pictures of him during the homily and, on leaving, approached some parishioners to ask for names and addresses of their homes.
“The Police have been stationed since yesterday (Sunday) outside the Church. They took pictures when we were at mass and some people approached them, asked their names, addresses, and followed them to their houses. And, today (Monday), they woke up parked outside the garage, preventing access to the garage of the priest’s house,” denounced the priest in an interview with CONFIDENTIAL.
The father stressed that the siege intensified over the weekend, but he pointed out that he has been the victim of persecution by police and paramilitaries since before Easter, since they followed him on several occasions aboard vans and motorcycles.
“The persecution before Easter was with Toyota Hilux trucks, they were policemen, paramilitaries, who chased me when I was in my vehicle. They never detained me, I saw that they persecuted me, some yelled at me as a coup plotter, a murderer, but they never stopped me directly to attack me or something, ”he detailed.
He explained that Father Bismarck Conde, foreign vicar of the department of Masaya, has tried to communicate with the general commissioner Luis Barrantes, police chief of the Masaya police delegation, to find out the reason for the police presence outside the temple and, in particular, , due to the blockage that they cause when parking in the access to the parking area of the priest’s house. However, he pointed out, they have not answered his calls.
The priest stressed that the police “have not approached” him at any time and stated that “he has no idea what the police presence is due to,” although he stressed that “anything that happens to me, we already know where it comes from ”.
Ortega persecution against the Church in Masaya
In the last three years, Father Harving Padilla has also been the target of smear campaigns ordered by the Ortega-Murillo regime and reported in official media. In July 2018, the official 19 Digital published a note in which they accused the religious of “directing the terrorists who vilely murdered non-commissioned officer Gabriel de Jesús Vado Ruiz”, arguing that “his complicity was evident in the communication he had with the criminals”.
In November 2019, A group of Ortega fanatics, supported by agents of the National Police, attacked parishioners of the San Juan Bautista church in Masaya, where a mass was being celebrated in support of Father Edwin Román, who was accompanying ten mothers on a hunger strike. On that occasion, Father Padilla denounced that it was the second time that supporters of the regime desecrated the temple and blamed the leaders of the Sandinista Front in the city of Masaya.
In addition, he pointed out that the Ortega regime had requested “the change of the priests of Masaya” and assured that their conscience “is not bought. We are free, we act as pastors, as priests of the Church, without allowing myself to be bought by anyone”.
In January 2020, a strong police device surrounded all accesses to the San Juan Bautista parish, after it was publicly known that a collection of school supplies would be carried out in the temple, promoted by the Union of Political Prisoners and Prisoners (UPPN).
This new intensification of the police siege in the San Juan Bautista church occurred ten days after the National Assembly, controlled by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, approved a report of the Justice and Legal Affairs and Peace, Defense, Governance and Human Rights commissions of the National Assembly, in which it was recommended to increase the sentences against future political prisoners of Nicaragua who were tried for the crimes of “treason against the fatherland” , confiscate assets through the figure “extinction of ownership” and criminalize “religious and directors of human rights organizations who were involved in the coup adventure.”
Religious leaders have responded to the threats of the Ortega regime through their Sunday homilies, calling on the parishioners and delegates of the floor to “not be afraid” and “not be intimidated”, because “the Church may seem weak, but it is not. it is”.
Siege in the house of the opposition Yubrank Suazo
The former political prisoner Yubrank Suazo, who now remains in exile, denounced that his parents’ home in Masaya has also been besieged since May 15.
“Since last night (Sunday) and early today (Monday), I have received messages from friends and neighbors, alerting me to the presence of a subject with a red motorcycle in the surroundings of my parents’ house,” Suazo denounced through of their social networks.
The Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy (ACJD), of which Suazo is a member, pointed out that it is an act that violates his human rights and demanded the cessation of the siege.
