The father Manuel Salvador Garciawho was the parish priest of the Jesús de Nazareno church in Nandaime, is serving 102 days in prison in the Granda Penitentiary System, known as “La Granja”, after being convicted of two alleged crimes.
On June 22, the religious was first sentenced to two years in prison for the crime of threatening with a weapon against five people, who are identified as sympathizers of the Sandinista Front and who arrived on May 30 outside the temple to yell at him and threaten him.
Related news: Priest Manuel García will spend in prison until 2025 by decision of the Nicaraguan regime
The accusation and first sentence against Father Manuel García was based on a video from May 30 released on social networks where the priest came out with a machete, to warn the mob of Sandinistas that if they entered his home, he was going to defend himself. with the machete.
A month later —on July 8— the priest García was prosecuted for the second time, this time Judge Ana Xóchitl Fonseca of the District Court Specialized in Violence of Granada, sentenced him to two years and eight months in prison for the crimes of injuries physical and psychological to the detriment of Martha Candelaria Rivas.
It should be noted that the alleged victim refused to denounce the father, “rectifying” the facts, for which Ortega’s justice system detained, accused and convicted her of the alleged crime of “false testimony.”
Imprisoned until 2026
Adding the two sentences against Father Manuel Salvador García, he is serving the sentences in the Granada Penitentiary System.
Father Manuel García was arrested on June 1, being the first priest to be kept behind bars by the Ortega dictatorship, accusing him of common crimes. The priest joins more than 200 political prisoners in Nicaragua.
church is silent
Article 66 He has repeatedly tried to communicate with religious leaders of Granada, with Monsignor Jorge Solórzano Pérez, Bishop of the Diocese of Granada, Monsignor Carlos Avilés, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Managua and with Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, however they have avoided giving statements.
Related news: Justice of Ortega sentences Father Manuel García to two years in prison
Until now, the current situation that Father García is experiencing is unknown, after he was put behind bars, despite the fact that according to witnesses, it is a “maneuver” by the Ortega regime to kidnap him.
The same situation that the priest is going through is being experienced by eight other priests who were arrested on August 19, after they were locked up for 15 days together with Monsignor Rolando Álvarez in the Curia of Matagalpa.
After the assault on the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, the only thing that is known is that the priests, seminarians and lay people are being held in the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ) in Managua and that they were taken to a “secret hearing”, but it is unknown how his current situation is.
Human rights organizations, opposition groups and the international community have demanded that the Nicaraguan government release all political prisoners, those who were detained before and after the 2018 social protests, accusing them of common crimes or alleged “treason against the homeland.” ».
