Seven of the eight priests who were forcibly removed from their parishes in the departments of Matagalpa and Chontales during the first week of August were banished by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, who had prescribed them “seminary for prison.”
The priests exiled to Rome, confirmed student leader Lesther Alemán, are: Edgar Sacasa, Ulises Vega, Marlon Velásquez, Victor Godoy, Harvin Torrez, Jairo Pravia and Silvio Romero.
Related news: Dictatorship exiles seven Nicaraguan priests to Rome whom it kept in “seminary prison”
He also denounced the dictatorship’s actions as “de facto statelessness,” since the Ortega regime has exiled and rescinded the nationality of more than 300 Nicaraguans, including 222 former political prisoners who were sent on a direct flight to the United States.
Lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, a human rights defender and researcher on issues related to the persecution of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, reported on social media prior to Alemán’s confirmation that the priests were removed from the Interdiocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fatima, where the Ortega regime kept them imprisoned.
Marlon Velazquez,
Victor Godoy,
Harvin Torres,
Jairo Pravia and
Silvio Romero. Photos: Taken from the Internet.
The purges within public institutions are still latent in Nicaragua. The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, through two presidential agreements that were disclosed this Wednesday, August 7, in La Gaceta, dismissed the two main positions in the Ministry of Agriculture, that of Minister Bosco Castillo and his vice Ivania León, supposedly both “resigned,” although they had only been in those positions for a year.
Castillo Cruz, former leader of the Sandinista Youth, recently completed his first year as agricultural minister, after being placed in that position to replace the also Ortega supporter Isidro Rivera, whom Ortega consoled by giving him the position of minister advisor to the Presidency, which he previously took from Castillo Cruz.
Related news: Ortega decapitates the Agricultural Ministry: “Resignation” of the head Bosco Castillo and his vice, Ivannia León
The former JS, whom Ortega has rewarded with ministerial positions, before being agricultural minister, earned a mega salary of more than 31 thousand dollars, exercising his position as minister advisor to the Presidency, although he appeared registered as part of the payroll of the Ministry of Youth and not in the Presidency.
According to La Prensa, Bosco Castillo is being investigated for alleged acts of corruption. The dictatorship does not forgive anyone who steals from it without any involvement in the business.
In the last quarter, at least four robberies in the capital have gone viral on social media. The most recent occurred in the Villa Flor Sur neighborhood, where a subject, apparently using a firearm, robbed a group of students who were walking through the area.
The robbery was recorded on a security camera located in one of the houses in that neighborhood, located southeast of Managua, and went viral on social media, where Internet users urged that the criminal be identified so that he can be imprisoned and prosecuted for the crime of robbery with intimidation, which he perpetrated against the minors.
A political analyst, consulted by Article 66on condition of anonymity, said that this type of situation, which reflects an increase in common crimes, “has an impact in several directions: on people’s quality of life, increases risk levels and probabilities of victimization and also increases the perception of risk among the population.”
He stressed that this type of situation, in addition to influencing the perception of insecurity, also affects the real security conditions of the Nicaraguan population, which “has effects on the real living conditions of the people, but also tends to increase the levels of distrust in the population.”
