According to the press and the Nicaraguan opposition in exile, six Catholic priests were arrested in Nicaragua between Friday 29 and Saturday 30 December. This brings the number of clergy arrested since December 20, including a bishop, to eleven. According to these sources, the most recent detainees include Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, parish priest of the Archdiocese of Managua, Miguel Mantica of the Church of San Francisco, also in the capital, and Marcos Diaz of the Diocese of León (Northwest). .
According to Nicaraguan media published in Costa Rica, priests Gerardo Rodriguez, Mykel Monterrey and Raul Zamora are also on the list to provide services in churches in Managua.
These arrests followed those of Bishop Isidoro Mora and two seminarians on December 20, followed by those of Vicar General of Managua Carlos Aviles and priests Hector Treminio, Fernando Calero and Pablo Villafranca the following week. The Nicaraguan police have not yet responded.
Media published in Costa Rica such as La Prensa, Confidencial and 100% Noticias cited church sources, lawyers Martha Molina and Yonarqui Martinez and human rights activist Haydée Castillo, all in exile, in their indictment.
The connection between Nicaragua and the Vatican is broken
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday condemned the “enforced disappearance” of Bishop Isidoro Mora in Nicaragua for more than a week, as well as a “new wave of arrests of religious Catholics.” “In addition to an attack on individual freedom, this also violates religious freedom, the pillar of every democratic state,” emphasized the office of this UN agency for Central America and the Caribbean on the social network X.
Mgr. Mora, 53, Bishop of Sinua, is the second bishop arrested after that of Matagalpa, Mgr. Rolando Alvarez, 57, to whom he had pledged his support. Mgr. Alvarez, who has been imprisoned since August 2022, was sentenced on February 10 to 26 years and four months in prison for “conspiracy and spreading false news.” He had just refused to travel to the United States with 222 political prisoners who had been deported and stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship.
President Daniel Ortega, a former guerrilla who has been in power since 2007, is in conflict with the Catholic Church. The Vatican closed its embassy in March and Pope Francis called Mr. Ortega's government a “crude dictatorship.”
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