Managua [Nicaragua], December 31 : Five priests have been arrested over the past 48 hours by the authorities in Managua, Vatican News reported.
Reports on the situation in Nicaragua surfaced through social media posts by exiled lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, raising further alarm at the United Nations.
The list of detained priests in Nicaragua is expanding, according to Molina's updates in the report titled "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?"
In the last 48 hours, Molina disclosed on her social media profiles that authorities in Nicaragua have detained three additional priests. This adds to the arrests of Monsignor Carlos Aviles and Father Hector Treminio from the Managua diocese, reported on Friday.
Among those taken into custody by security agents are Fathers Marcos Diaz Prado, vicar of the Santo Tomas Apostol church in Puerto de Corinto, Fernando Calero, pastor of Nuestra Senora de Fatima Rancho Grande, and Monsignor Pablo Villafranca of Nuestro Senor de Veracruz parish in the municipality of Nindiri, Masaya, according to Vatican News.
On Friday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) strongly condemned the "forced disappearance" of Siuna's Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega, who was arrested on December 20.
The OHCHR office for Central America and the Caribbean expressed concern about a "new wave of arrests of religious" in Managua, following the imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Jose Alvarez Lagos, who received a 26-year sentence without due process. Bishop Alvarez faced charges of conspiracy, spreading false news, obstruction of justice, and contempt of authorities.
Alvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa, is serving a 26-year prison sentence for charges including conspiracy and treason. He refused to leave the country with 200 others opposing the government.
Since 2018, tens of thousands of Nicaraguans have fled the country to escape persecution when Ortega's government suppressed widespread anti-regime protests, resulting in numerous deaths, injuries, and arbitrary detentions, according to Human Rights Watch.
President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo view the Catholic Church as opposition forces, labelling the protests as an "attempted coup."
Yader Morazan, an expert in Nicaragua's judiciary system, highlighted a "repressive pattern" against the Catholic Church, with dozens of priests and laymen jailed, and over 200 people, including priests and nuns, expelled or blocked from returning.
A news release from state-owned website El19digital on Monday reported the arrest of 11 people linked to Christian organisations accused of money laundering.
Ortega secured a fifth term as president in 2021. His government, citing a vague national security law, began detaining opposition figures, journalists, and activists ahead of the elections in June of that year, according to a CNN report.
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