Authorities in Nicaragua detained two priests over the weekend of Aug. 10-11 after arresting 11 others a few weeks before, and on Monday (Aug. 12) the government closed a chapter of the Caritas charity, Catholic and evangelical sources reported.
Officials revoked the legal status of the Caritas chapter in the Diocese of Matagalpa along with that of 14 other Non-Governmental Organizations, including groups linked with Protestant denominations, according to the National Catholic Reporter. The interior ministry claimed that Cáritas de Matagalpa failed to provide financial reports between 2020 and 2023 and alleged that its board of directors’ term expired in September 2022.
Also in Matagalpa, in central Nicaragua, police on Sunday (Aug. 11) arrested the vicar of the Cathedral Parish, the Rev. Denis Martínez, according to Vatican News, citing local media outlets. Martínez was based in Managua but traveled to Matagalpa to celebrate Mass due to the shortage of priests, NCR reported, citing Mosaico CSI, a local online publication outlet.
On Saturday (Aug. 10), officers arrested the Rev. Leonel Balmaceda, priest of Jesús de Caridad parish in La Trinidad, Estelí, and a “pastoral collaborator” from Matagalpa identified as Carmen Sáenz, Vatican News reported.
The outlet reported also that on Aug. 8 seven Nicaraguan priests were expelled from the country and arrived in Rome. From July 26 to Aug. 3, authorities had arrested 11 Roman Catholic leaders in northern Nicaragua, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
National Police on Aug. 2 and 3 detained the Rev. Jairo Pravia and vicar Víctor Godoy of the Immaculate Conception of María de Sebáco Church in the Diocese of Matagalpa, Franciscan friar Silvio José Romero, friar Ramón Morras, the Rev. Antonio López and the Rev. Salvador López, according to CSW.
“All of them were taken from their parishes, forced to board police patrol vehicles and placed under house arrest with the other religious leaders at the National Inter-Diocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fátima, Managua,” CSW reported.
Officials also arrested the Rev. Raúl Francisco Villegas of the Matiguás Matagalpa parish, who is originally from Mexico, and Maron Velásquez Flores, vicar of Santa Lucía parish, according to CSW. Both parishes are in the municipality of Ciudad Darío, Matagalpa.
On Aug. 1, authorities arbitrarily detained from the Diocese of Matagalpa Monsignor Ulises Vega, administrator of the San Ramón parishes, and Monsignor Edgard Sacasa, administrator of the San Isidro parish; they had taken over the leadership of the diocese following the exile of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, according to CSW.
National Police brought both leaders to the National Inter-Diocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fátima, Managua, CSW reported.
On July 26, National Police arrested a 79-year-old priest, Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, as he was preparing for the ordination of three deacons in the Diocese of Estelí in Managua.
“The police informed him that he did not have permission to do so,” CSW stated. “Father Frutos, who is diabetic and suffers from hypertension, became seriously ill while in the police vehicle, and was subsequently taken to the National Inter-Diocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fátima, located in Managua, where he remains under house arrest.”
Held at the National Inter-Diocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fátima, which the National Police are using as a detention center, according to CSW, were Monsignor Ulises René Vega, administrator from the parish of San Ramón; Monsignor Edgar Sacasa, administrator from the parish of San Isidro; Father Jairo Pravia, parish priest of the Immaculate Conception of María de Sébaco; Father Víctor Godoy, vicar of the Immaculate Conception of María de Sébaco; Father Marlon Velásquez Flores, vicar of the Santa Lucía parish in Ciudad Darío; Friar Silvio José Romero, Diocese of Matagalpa; Friar Ramón Morras, Diocese of Matagalpa; Father Antonio López of the city of Dario, Diocese of Matagalpa; Father Raúl Francisco Villegas, Matiguás, Diocese of Matagalpa; Father Frutos Valle, priest of the Diocese of Estelí;
“The Diocese of Matagalpa used to be overseen by 70 priests (Franciscans and diocesans): 57 nationals and 13 foreigners,” CSW stated. “Thirty are now in exile (including their bishop, Rolando José Álvarez Lagos). According to journalist Martha Patricia, four priests are deceased.”
It was unclear which of the seven detained priests were exiled to the Vatican on Aug. 7. The National Catholic Reporter noted that the Rev. Francisco Tercero was still incarcerated and the location of friars Ramón Morras and Salvador de las Calabazas were unknown.
Citing independent local media, NCR reported that a deacon and a priest were released, and another priest left the country voluntarily.
On Aug. 10 authorities arrested Lesbia Gutiérrez, an administrator at Cáritas de Matagalpa, according to NCR.
The wave of arrests follows the conviction in March of 11 Nicaraguan pastors linked to the U.S.-based Mountain Gateway ministry on charges of money laundering. Implicated in the case also were three U.S. citizens not yet arrested, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Nicaragua’s arrest, imprisonment and exiling of priests and nuns began 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 has been 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.
