Monsignor Leonardo Urbina Rodríguez’s mother, the second religious condemned by the regime of Daniel Ortega in the last three monthsin the midst of an escalation of repression against the Catholic Church, asked to be allowed to see him after 49 days of confinement in the El Chipote police cell, designated by human rights organizations as a site of torture in Nicaragua.
María Eloísa Rodríguez, 78, described as “unfair” what they are doing with her son, parish priest of the Perpetuo Socorro de Boaco church. The family has denounced that the justice system has denied him the right to defense, while he was convicted of allegedly committing the crime of sexual abuse and psychological injuries against a minor under 14 years of age.
“He is innocent of what they accuse him of. I do not know who points it out, I have only heard them mention in Boaco. As a mother, I find myself sad. I live very sick, I’m worse off with sadness, I’m an old lady,” said Rodríguez, a resident of the community of Tule, in Boaco, located 80 kilometers from Managua.
Monsignor Leonardo Urbina is the second priest convicted by the dictatorship since last June, when the State’s persecution of religious intensified. The first of them was Manuel Salvador García, parish priest of the Jesús de Nazareno church in Nandaime, who was found guilty of assaulting a woman. However, she retracted her accusations in the process and ended up being the subject of the rage of the state who prosecuted her for “false testimony”.
Rodríguez expressed concern about the health status of the Boaco priest, given that he suffers from sugar and high blood pressure. He assured that they have not even allowed him a call to find out about his current situation since his arrest on July 13. She explained that in El Chipote they only accept liquids—water, juices—but they do not do the same with other foods or sleeping clothes for the religious.
Read: Eight parishes of the diocese of Matagalpa under the attacks of the Ortega regime
The lady said that her family is made up of her husband, José Ángel Urbina Hernández, and their five children. Monsignor Leonardo Urbina, from an early age, expressed his desire to become a catechist, which he considered a “blessing” for his family. He then told them that he wanted them to take him to the seminary to train as a priest. The woman declared that she considers that what happens to the other religious, prosecuted in Nicaragua, is also unfair.
“What a priest lives is preaching the gospel, in the parishes where he is. Monsignor was never heard of preaching against them. We all have the right to express our opinion, but it was never heard that he was against them, “Rodríguez assured.
Lawyer: Total disregard for the laws and cruelty
For Francisco Omar Gutiérrez, the family’s lawyer, the story of the Urbina Rodríguez reflects his family’s unease and the case also shows the lack of minimum guarantees in the process, in which the refusal to have a private lawyer was only one of the irregularities.
Gutiérrez lamented that the decisions taken against Monsignor go against all current legal provisions, also referring to the secret judicial hearings such as the one that served to convict him. And that shows a total disregard for the laws, in his opinion.
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“They (the relatives) feel so bad, not knowing anything, not knowing anything (of Monsignor Urbina)… That is torture, it really is cruelty,” said the jurist, who assured that not even in the electronic system of the courts known as Nicarao, a record of the initial hearing can be found.
In August, the dictatorship in Mulukukú also kidnapped the priest Óscar Benavidez Dávila, who is being held in custody. same prisonwhile they carry out an investigation against him for crimes that the State keeps secret until now.
The special forces of the Police also hold the force at his home in Managua at Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Alvarez, accused of “organizing violent groups” and “inciting hatred”. The authorities sent to El Chipote four priests, two seminarians and a layman who accompanied him when the authorities besieged the Diocese of Matagalpa between August 4 and 19 last. They are also kept incommunicado.
The State also closed seven stations in the Diocese of Matagalpa in an unprecedented attack against the Church since 2007, while increasing hate speech against priests, whom they call “coup plotters” for their position in defense of human rights in favor of citizens, the most brutal victim of abuse by the authorities since the civic rebellion of 2018.
