A total of four priests were arrested in Nicaragua in just two days. Their whereabouts are still unknown. The Sandinista regime has been kidnapping and imprisoning Catholic priests for months.
Silvio José Báez, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua who lives in exile in the United States due to persecution by Daniel Ortega’s regime, condemned the kidnapping of three priests that took place in recent days.
The kidnapped priests were Monsignor Carlos Avilés, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Managua; Father Héctor Treminio, pastor of Saint Christ in Esquipulas in the same archdiocese, and Fr. Fernando Calero, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima in Rancho Grande in the Diocese of Matagalpa.
Báez wrote of X: “I am outraged by the unlawful kidnapping of three beloved priests from Managua by the criminal Sandinista dictatorship.”
Kidnappings of priests
Today, Nicaraguan lawyer Martha Patricia Molina reported the kidnapping of another priest: Marcos Diaz Prado, pastor of the parish of St. Thomas the Apostle in Puerto de Corinto in the Diocese of León.
In addition to these four new cases, on December 26, police kidnapped Father Pablo Villafranca, pastor of Our Lord of Veracruz, in Nindirí (Masaya), also in the Archdiocese of Managua. To date, there is no information about his whereabouts.
In mid-December, Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega of the Diocese of Siuna was kidnapped and imprisoned. Along with the hierarch, authorities also detained two seminarians. Monsignor Óscar Escoto, vicar general of the Diocese of Matagalpa, was also arrested and held for several hours. Another priest, Father Jader Guido, was arrested on December 24 and later released.
In recent months, the persecution of the Catholic Church by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo has intensified. The most famous case of persecution was that of Bishop Rolando Álvarez from the Diocese of Matagalpa, who was kidnapped and held under house arrest from August 2022 to February this year. The hierarch was eventually sentenced to more than 26 years in prison on charges of treason.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
