The US Under Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Brian A. Nichols, called on the Daniel Ortega regime to release the Nicaraguan priest Fernando Zamora Silva, who was arbitrarily detained on July 9 after leaving a religious activity.
The US official this Friday, July 14, also demanded that the Sandinista government release Monsignor Rolando Alvarezwho has accumulated more than 320 days as a prisoner of conscience and remains confined in a maximum security cell in the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary Complex, known as “La Modelo”, in Tipitapa.
“We call for the unconditional release of Bishop Álvarez, Father Zamora and all those who have been unjustly detained for exercising their constitutional and human rights, including freedom of religion or belief,” Nichols wrote on his Twitter account.
Related news: Ortega police detain another priest from the Diocese of Siuna in Managua
The Undersecretary of State also condemned “the repression” carried out by the Ortega Murillo dictatorship against religious communities.
For his part, rashad hussainUnited States Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Affairs, reiterated that the Joe Biden government continues to “call for the immediate and unconditional release of all people unjustly detained for peacefully expressing their religious beliefs in Nicaragua.”
He also urged the Nicaraguan Executive to “allow Bishop Rolando Álvarez, his fellow clergy and laity to carry out their pastoral work peacefully” in the country.
After the attempted dialogue between the opposition and the Ortega regime, in 2018, the Church has been the target of the Nicaraguan dictator, who has offended, persecuted, imprisoned, exiled, and expelled its priests.
The last action taken by the Ortega Murillo administration was to accuse the Catholic Church of the alleged crime of money laundering, freezing the bank accounts of all the dioceses of the country and of some priests and laity.
To date, the investigations by the judicial authorities have not presented any progress, however the repression against the religious continues. In these last days it was known that two priests left the country.
The first was the father Douglas Ramon Guevara Avilawho directed the Immaculate Conception of Mary parish, of the Diocese of León.
The other religious is the Spanish Jesus Maria Palma, of the San Isidro Labrador parish, in Jinotega. The parishioners point out that although they know that the religious’s mother was sick, she left the country without prior notice. Currently, there are 80 religious in exile.
