Monsignor José Leonardo Urbina, priest of the Perpetuo Socorro parish in Boaco, was arrested this Wednesday morning by the National Police, and in the afternoon he was presented in the Managua Courts, accused of the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl. years.
Urbina, also vicar of the pastoral zone of Boaco, received a summons to the Boaco police station to respond to a complaint, he told CONFIDENTIAL a source of the Catholic Church. “At around 7:30 am, the Police came to bring him for an interview for a complaint against him of an alleged violation,” said a resident of the parish.
According to the propaganda media of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, the priest has already been given preventive detention. He was accused of the alleged crimes of rape and psychological injuries before the Second Criminal District Court Specialized in Violence, Childhood and Adolescence of Managua.
The accusation against the priest indicates that the alleged rape was committed against a 14-year-old girl, whose parents are faithful devotees of the Catholic Church. “Due to the degree of trust that existed between the defendant and the victim’s grandmother, the defendant took advantage of this circumstance to approach the victim and gain her trust, to the point that the victim considered and recognized him as her godfather,” he stated. Enmanuel Álvarez, prosecutor of the Public Ministry.
Sandra Dinarte, substitute judge in charge of the case, admitted the accusation and set an initial hearing date for July 21.
The official Channel 8 explained that, in the accusation, it is indicated that the alleged act was committed on three occasions: the first in December 2021; the second last January; and the last one in April this year.
Second priest arrested
Urbina became the second religious arrested by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. The priest Manuel Salvador Garcia Rodriguezparish priest of the Jesús de Nazareno church —also known as El Calvario—, in Nandaime, Granada, was sentenced on June 22 to two years in prison for the alleged crime of threatening five people with a knife and a fine of 14 116 cordobas or 200 days fines.
The religious was transferred to the Penitentiary System of Granada, where he will remain in prison, according to the court ruling, which sentenced him after the night of May 30, he went out to the atrium of the church with a machete in his hand in a defensive attitude against a group of villagers who yelled expletives at him like “assassin”.
Since his arrest on June 2, it has been known that he was accused of “physical violence in an ideal contest of psychological violence” against Martha Candelaria Rivas Hernández, the alleged victim, whom the regime also arrested after she refused to sign the complaint for the alleged intentional aggression.
On July 1, the priest was found guilty of two more crimes: psychological injuries and physical injuries to the detriment of Rivas Hernández. The Prosecutor’s Office asks for two years and eight months in prison for both crimes.
The Ortega siege against priests and bishops
The regime has maintained a frontal attack against bishops and priests of the Catholic Church, whom it describes as “terrorists” and “coup plotters” since 2018, when they raised their voices against the repression and massacre that left more than 325 murdered between April and September of that year, and its temples were used as a refuge for hundreds of students and citizens.
Last July 6, Ortega expelled 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity from the countryorder founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who were transferred from Managua and Granada to the border with Costa Rica, by the General Directorate of Migration and Foreigners (DGME) and the Police.
June 28 it became known about his forced departure from the countryafter Parliament —dominated by the Sandinista Front— canceled the legal status of his association and closed his charities.
Last May, the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, remained locked up for several days in the Santo Cristo parish, in the Las Colinas sector, Managua, where he took shelter for several days before the police siege.
During the last four years, the regime has also launched smear campaigns against the Church and its priests, promoting physical and verbal aggression by Ortega fanatics, as occurred with the desecration of the Managua Cathedral during the body mass of the poet. Ernesto Cardenal, in March 2020.
They have also threatened several priests with death, forcing them into exile. The Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio José Báez, served three years outside his homeland, on April 23, after leaving at the request of Pope Francis to protect him.
Father Edwin Román, from the San Miguel church in Masaya, also suffered along with the mortal victims of the repression in Masaya and had to go into exile for his safety. Likewise, the priest César Augusto Gutiérrez, from Masaya, left the country due to the siege of Sandinista fanatics.
Dozens of other priests in different territories of the country have denounced police and paramilitary surveillance, especially during the messages they offer in their homilies. Another form of pressure exerted by the regime against priests has been the refusal to enter the country, as happened with two Franciscans in February 2021 and with the expulsion of the highest representative of the Vatican in Nicaragua, the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stalislaw Sommertag, in March. past.
