At least 9 priests abducted by Nicaraguan dictatorship in last 2 weeks

Friar Silvio Romero from the Diocese of Juigalpa and Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón from the Diocese of Estelí are among the detained priests. / Credit: Diocese of Estelí, Nicaragua

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 7, 2024 / 15:38 pm (CNA).

At least nine Catholic priests have been “violently” abducted by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua since July 26, lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina reported. These priests “remain under total surveillance” by the National Police, she added.

Molina, author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?”, shared on X Aug. 5 a list of priests “abducted by the Sandinista dictatorship.”

There are at least nine: Monsignor Ulises Vega Matamoros, Monsignor Edgar Sacasa Sierra, Father Víctor Godoy, Father Jairo Pravia Flores, Father Marlon Velásquez, Father Jarvin Torrez, and Father Raúl Villegas, all of them from the clergy of the Diocese of Matagalpa; Friar Silvio Romero from the Diocese of Juigalpa; and Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón from the Diocese of Estelí.

In an Aug. 6 statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, the Nicaraguan researcher reported that Father Salvador López of the Diocese of Matagalpa is missing, although it is not known precisely if he was also abducted by the authorities or if he tried to escape the country.

Nicaraguan media, such as Despacho505, reported on the arrest of three other priests — Father Antonio López, Father Francisco Tercero, and Fray Ramón Morras — as well as Deacon Ervin Aguirre.

Molina said the arrests began on July 26 when Valle, administrator “ad omnia” of the Diocese of Estelí, was “abducted, interrogated,” and placed under surveillance in a Catholic Church formation house.

The lawyer stated the other priests were arrested days later without any formal accusation by the authorities, since “they have not committed any crime.”

She further noted that the priests “were violently abducted and taken from their rectories in the middle of the night” and that in some cases “the property was raided and technological items were stolen.”

The lawyers said the motive for these arrests could be because Murillo and Ortega “hate everything that has to do with religion, with the Catholic faith, and mainly with the Diocese of Matagalpa, where almost the majority of these priests who were abducted belong.”

Matagalpa is the diocese of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a human rights defender and critic of the dictatorship who was kept under house arrest for months and eventually sentenced to 26 years in prison in a controversial judicial process. He was deported in January to Rome, where he now lives in exile.

The researcher also suggested that the arrests could be “revenge” against Álvarez, “who, despite having remained silent since leaving prison, is considered by the dictatorship to be its main enemy.”

Molina pointed out that all the priests are under de facto arrest, since “there is no order from a judge stating that they are under house arrest. They are all unable to leave and unable to carry out their daily activities, as they had been doing in their respective parishes.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.