Three more priests arrested in Nicaragua

By Vatican News

Five priests have been detained over the past two days by the authorities in Managua, Nicaragua.

News on the situation appeared in social media reports by a lawyer in exile, adding to the concern of the United Nations.

The list of priests arrested in Nicaragua is growing, according to reports by exiled researcher and lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, who periodically updates the report titled "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?"

In the past 48 hours, Ms. Molina reported in a post on her social media profiles, picked up by other media, that the police in the Central American country have detained three more priests in addition to Msgr. Carlos Avilés and Father Héctor Treminio, of the Managua diocese, whose arrest was reported on Friday. 

Also taken away by security agents were Fathers Marcos Díaz Prado, vicar of the Santo Tomás Apóstol church in Puerto de Corinto, Fernando Calero, pastor of Nuestra Señora de Fátima Rancho Grande, and Monsignor Pablo Villafranca of Nuestro Señor de Veracruz parish in the municipality of Nindirí, Masaya.

On Friday, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) condemned the "forced disappearance" of Siuna's Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega, who was arrested on 20 December.

In a note, the OHCHR office for Central America and the Caribbean spoke of a "new wave of arrests of religious" by authorities in Managua, following the 26-year prison sentence imposed, without due process, on Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos.

The Bishop of Managua was accused of conspiracy, spreading false news, obstruction of justice, and contempt of the authorities.

Bishop Álvarez has been in prison since February, after having been under house arrest since August 2022.