Father Uriel Vallejos, pastor of the Divina Misericordia church in Sébaco, confirmed his exile, a decision he made after learning that the order of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo was to arrest him.
Goodbye my Nicaragua! “It hurts me to breathe in the front country,” said the general director of the closed Canal and Radio Católica of that city through his Twitter account.
Related news: Father Uriel Vallejos left Nicaragua through blind spots, confirms EWTN
The confirmation of his departure was announced on Sunday, August 4. A day before – Saturday – a source from the Catholic Church confirmed it to the religious news portal EWTN News.
The religious said goodbye to the country, urging Nicaraguans not to leave Monsignor alone Roland Alvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and new hostage of the Ortega regime. “See you soon my beautiful country, of lakes and volcanoes.”
“I hope with hope that we will not leave Monsignor Rolando Álvarez alone, our bishop who has sacrificed himself for our country. It is the moment of unity. People are not negotiated because they are not things,” Vallejos demanded.
He also expressed that as a Church they expect “the prompt release of my bishop, priests, seminarians and laity. It is time to show which side we are on, the side of truth or comfort.
«Let us not settle for silence, survival and negotiations. “Liberty and life should not be negotiated”». I exhort the parish priest, who concluded that he will return to the country, until there is land “of liberation. Long live free Nicaragua!
target of dictatorship
On August 1, agents from the Police Department of Special Operations (DOEP) raided the temple and attacked parishioners who came to support priest Vallejos. Later they surrounded the parish house where he was for several days without being able to leave.
Related news: Father Uriel Vallejos reappears on Twitter, asks that “hatred be extinguished and revenge be appeased”
The last thing that was known about the priest is that on August 4 he would have managed to leave the parish house. According to the press, sources on condition of anonymity indicated that the police officers withdrew from the area; which allowed the father together with the religious brothers who accompanied him to leave, it was until recent days that his exile was confirmed.
At least five exiled priests
The news of Vallejos’s exile comes after the lawyer Yader Morazán assured on September 1 that the five priests who went into exile are: Fr. Uriel Vallejo, Pbro. Vincent Martinez, Pbro. Sebastian LopezPbro. Mangel Hernandez and Pbro. Danny Garcia.
For his part, Deacon Carlos Mata, of the Diocese of Granada, reported that due to threats from “servile and fanatical people” he was forced to leave his homeland.
“Dear brothers, from the depths of my heart I have loved my country, but I inform you that due to the madness of servile and fanatical people, I have had to leave and abandon the land that saw me born, I ask for your prayers,” he wrote. religious in your account Twitter.
Related news: Priest Uriel Vallejos manages to leave the parish house where he was locked up for three days due to the police siege
Article 66 He has tried to contact Father Vallejos on several occasions to find out more details about his forced exile, however, no contact has been made.
Since 2018, the Ortega government has attacked the Catholic Church, calling its priests “traitors, diabolical and enemies of the country.” So far, Nicaraguan justice keeps at least nine Catholic priests behind bars.
