9 de agosto 2024
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The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo expelled seven of the eight priests they had detained at the Our Lady of Fatima Seminary in Managua to the Vatican, diplomatic sources in Rome confirmed to CONFIDENCIAL.
The religious arrived in Rome today at 5:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. Nicaraguan time). They were taken from the seminary and sent to Rome on Wednesday, August 7. However, priest Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, the 79-years-old, administrator ad omnia of the Diocese of Estelí, arrested on July 26, was not among those expelled.
The banished priests are Edgar Sacasa, Ulises Vega, Marlon Velázquez, Víctor Godoy, Harvin Torres, Jairo Pravia and Silvio Romero.
The banishment of the seven Nicaraguan priests was confirmed hours later by the Ortega regime, which also assured that the priests "have arrived safely and have been welcomed by the Holy See."
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Raúl Francisco Villegas, a priest of Mexican origin, who was pastor of the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe church in Matiguás, who was arrested on August 2, are unknown.
Sébaco parish secretary freed
Prior to the banishment of the priests, the regime's police released the secretary of the parish in the municipality of Sébaco, Matagalpa, Lesbia Rayo Balmaceda, who was detained on August 5 in the midst of a new escalation of repression against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
The journalist of the Diocese of Matagalpa in exile, Manuel Obando Cortedano, confirmed through his social networks that Rayo was released on Monday night, but it is not known if any precautionary measure was imposed on her.
A total of 46 religious now banished
In the early hours of Saturday, January 13, 2024, Bishop Rolando José Álvarez of Matagalpa, was exiled to the Vatican along with 18 other religious figures who had been imprisoned between the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations of December 2023.
On October 18 of the previous year, the regime exiled twelve priests to the Vatican who had been held as political prisoners, "following fruitful conversations with the Holy See."
On February 9, 2023, the Ortega regime also included eight religious figures in a group of 222 prisoners of conscience who were exiled to the United States.
With the recent exile of seven more priests to the Vatican, the total number of exiles now stands at 46. However, the dictatorship has subjected more than 200 religious men and women to exile, expulsion, or denial of entry to Nicaragua since 2018.
This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by our staff. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.
