Nicaragua: Two more priests expelled and sent to Rome

By Vatican News

Fr. Leonel Balmaceda and Fr. Denis Martínez, the two priests arrested in Nicaragua on August 10 and 11, respectively, have been expelled by the government and sent to Rome.

Fr. Balmaceda, the parish priest of Jesús de Caridad Church in La Trinidad, is from the Diocese of Estelí.

Fr. Martínez, a formator at the interdiocesan seminary Nuestra Señora de Fátima in Managua, belongs to the clergy of the Diocese of Matagalpa.

Both dioceses are administered by Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who has resided in Rome since January.

Human rights defenders and independent media, such as the websites La Prensa and 100% Noticias, reported their expulsion.

News reports also announced that Fr. Danny García, the parish priest of San Juan Bautista Church in Matagalpa, was "released" following news of his arrest by the Nicaraguan police on August 15, adding that he has since left Nicaragua.

According to a report by a Nicaraguan researcher in exile, as reported by 100% Noticias, since the eruption of the crisis in the country in 2018, 245 religious figures have been forced into exile or expelled.

These include the Apostolic Nuncio to Nicaragua, Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag, three bishops, 136 priests from various Nicaraguan dioceses, three deacons, eleven seminarians, and 91 religious women or men.

The same source, citing the document, notes that 19 religious men and women, including Bishop Álvarez, exiled Bishop Silvio Báez, and 14 other priests, have been declared "traitors to the homeland" and stripped of their nationality.