Ortega police arrest another priest in Nicaragua for ‘treason against the fatherland’

Nicaragua’s National Police arrested another in the service of dictator Daniel Ortega priest. Reason: alleged “treason”. The arrest was made on Tuesday the 23rd and agents confirmed the information on Thursday the 25th.

The arrested priest is Jaime Iván Montesinos Saucedas, 61 years old. He is pastor of the Juan Pablo II Church in the parish of Sébaco. It is a diocese presided over by Archbishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, who was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison for crimes of “treason”.

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“The National Police are investigating Father Jaime Iván Montesinos Sauceda for committing acts that endanger the independence, sovereignty and selfdetermination of the nation, under Article 1 of the Law for the Defense of the People’s Rights to Independence, Sovereignty, “SelfDetermination and Peace”. the group in the press release.

A dictatorship The Nicaraguan government has been attacking the Catholic Church since 2018. And it unleashed a wave of arrests of Catholic leaders in 2022. Former Ambassador of the Organization of American States (OAS), Arturo McFields, told the newspaper Articulo 66 that attacks on the Catholic Church in Nicaragua are not new and that the dictatorship arrests priests to discredit the Church in front of the population. “What the dictatorship is doing is using the theory of killing the messenger, that is, defaming him,” he said. “Charge him with drunkenness or some other crime. The aim is to slander the Church and her priests, especially those who think differently and were at one time close to Monsignor Rolando Alvarez.”

Ortega accuses the Catholic Church of supporting protests against his regime

Jaime Iván Montesino’s Sauceda with Bishop Rolando Álvarez, sentenced to prison in Nicaragua for ‘treason against the fatherland’ | Photo: Saucethe archive via Infobae

Monsignor Rolando Alvaréz, Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, is one of the key Catholic leaders arrested in Nicaragua. He is an outspoken critic of the Ortega dictatorship.

The Nacaraguan dictator has already described the bishops of the Bishops’ Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) as “terrorists”. he accuses that Catholic Church after supporting antiregime protests in 2018.

Christians can no longer even hold Easter processions in Nicaragua. Two nuns were expelled from the country and another 2,000 private organizations, including business unions and Catholic universities, were banned.

In this month, Ortega also shut down the Red Cross in Nicaragua and confiscated his assets.

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