The 13 members of Texas-based Mountain Gateway ministry imprisoned in Nicaragua earlier this year were among 135 “unjustly detained political prisoners” released today (Sept. 5) in a deal arranged by the U.S. government, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a press statement.
“No one should be put in jail for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights of free expression, association, and practicing their religion,” Sullivan said.
Arrested in December after a massive evangelistic campaign, the Nicaraguan pastors and other members of Mountain Gateway had been convicted of money laundering in March and sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. They were fined a total of nearly $1 billion, and two attorneys representing them were also reportedly convicted and imprisoned.
“This is the day we have been praying and believing God for,” said Jon Britton Hancock, founder and president of Mountain Gateway, according to the The New York Times. “Members of Congress, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security worked tirelessly to effect their release from their unjust imprisonment.”
Hancock, also charged but not arrested, had obtained the support of Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Alabama) and other members of Congress to advocate for the Christians’ release, the newspaper reported.
Among those imprisoned was 34-year-old Mountain Gateway minister and administrator Marisela Mejía, who had been arrested shortly after giving birth, according to The New York Times. She and her husband, Mountain Gateway lead pastor Walner O. Blandón, were sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined $80 million each, according to The Times. They along with the other released prisoners were to arrive in Guatemala today to be processed as refugees.
The two children of Mejía and Blandón, both born in the United States, were staying with relatives in Nicaragua and reportedly were to join their parents in Guatemala.
Also released were Catholic laypeople, students and others whom Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, considered a threat to their authoritarian rule, said the NSA’s Sullivan.
“The United States again calls on the government of Nicaragua to immediately cease the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens for merely exercising their fundamental freedoms,” Sullivan said. “The United States welcomes the leadership and generosity of the government of Guatemala for graciously agreeing to accept these Nicaraguan citizens.”
Once in Guatemala, those released will be offered the opportunity to apply for lawful ways to rebuild their lives in the United States or other countries through President Biden’s Safe Mobility Office initiative, he said.
Nicaragua began arresting, imprisoning and exiling priests and nuns after Catholic leaders criticized the government’s deadly repression of protests over social security cutbacks for retirees in April 2018. Officials took 1,200 actions against the Catholic Church between 2019 and 2023, expelling dozens of priests and nuns and sentencing others to prison terms of eight to 30 years, according to the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective.
Evangelical leaders have largely refrained from denouncing human rights abuses by the Ortega regime, but the government began taking away their ability to operate in the country, albeit more quietly and gradually than actions against the Catholic church. The regime has taken away Protestants’ permits to operate and receive funds from abroad, according to the coordinator of the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective, Wendy Flores. Of 256 evangelical or other Protestant organizations closed or dissolved since 2021, 183 were shuttered in 2022, Flores told The AP.
The religious organizations were among the 3,552 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) closed down, according to the report.
About 45 percent of Nicaragua’s population is estimated to be Catholic, with an equal percentage said to be evangelical or other Protestants.
