The Police at the service of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo confirmed the arrest of priest Jaime Iván Montesinos Sauceda, 61, parish priest of the San Juan Pablo Segundo church, located in Villa Chagüitillo, in the municipality of Sébaco, Diocese of Matagalpa.
The rumor about the arrest of the religious began to gain relevance from Wednesday afternoon, but it was not until this Thursday that the police institution released the statement in which it assumed the kidnapping.
Related news: “Cowardly act of the dictatorship”, opponents describe the arrest of Father Jaime Montesinos
In press release 009-2023, the Police pointed out to the religious, of the third age, of “committing acts that undermine the independence, sovereignty and self-determination of the nation”, the same tool that has been used to imprison dozens of priests. and hundreds of opponents.
The entity, sanctioned by the United States, in an attempt to discredit the priest and question his morality, in its statement indicates that Montesinos was in a “suspicious attitude, drunk and in the company of a young woman, on board of the White Toyota Hilux van, double cab, license plate MT 23726, parked at the edge of the road”.
Human rights defender Danny Ramírez-Ayérdiz, executive secretary of the Inter-American Legal Assistance Center for Human Rights (Calidh), condemned this arrest and this new attack against the Catholic Church.
The Police announced that they will continue the investigations and then refer the religious to the corresponding authorities for his subsequent trial. Under secrecy it was left where he is being held or if he will remain under house arrest.
The former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Arturo McFields, assures that this arrest corresponds to the pattern of attacks on the Catholic Church and the fear that the dictatorship wants to instill among those who are leaders of the faith in their localities.
With the arrest of Father Montesinos, the Nicaraguan dictatorship raises the number of kidnapped religious to four; Among them is the Bishop of Matagalpa and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez.
In addition, the priests Pastor Eugenio Rodríguez Benavides and Leonardo Guevara Gutiérrez, are under house arrest for an alleged “investigation” for the management of the extinct Cáritas, social arm of the Catholic Church.
The dictator Daniel Ortega ordered the stripping of the three positions he had granted to Michael René Campbell Hooker, before he decided to place him as Nicaragua’s ambassador to China.
Related news: Ortega strips his newly appointed ambassador to China of three posts
Through presidential agreements published in La Gaceta today, Ortega eliminated Campbell’s posts as ambassador to the Special Mission of the Republic of Nicaragua, advisory minister to the President of the Republic for International Relations and with the Greater Caribbean, and secretary of Promotion of Investments and Exports of the Presidency of the Republic.
Communist China has been Ortega’s new ally since December 2021, after they decided overnight to end relations with Taiwan after more than a decade benefiting from the island, which was among its main collaborators. Trade agreements with China, to date, remain weak.
Relatives of political prisoner Brenda Lee Baldelomar, originally from Chinandega, denounced that the opposition member is in poor health and without receiving medical attention. The citizen was arrested on April 17, in the framework of the Ortega attack carried out for the fifth anniversary of the social outbreak.
After more than a month in detention, Hans Ismael Baldelomar, son of the opposition member, told Article 66 that it was the same police officers who informed a family member of Baldelomar that the political prisoner had problems with pneumonia and earaches, which is why who requested antibiotics to supply them. To date, it is unknown what crime they attribute to Brenda, it is only known that there is an open case against her.
