In Nicaragua, six priests were arrested within twenty-four hours

Six Catholic priests were arrested in Nicaragua between Friday, December 29, and Saturday, December 30, bringing the number of clergy detained since December 20 to 11, including the bishop, according to the Nicaraguan press and opposition in exile. Among the latest detainees is M^love Silvio Fonseca, family vicar of the Diocese of Managua, Miguel Manteca, from the Church of San Francisco, also in the capital, and Marcos Diaz, from the Diocese of León (Northwest), according to these sources.

Priests Gerardo Rodriguez, Miquel Monterrey and Raul Zamora, who provide religious services in churches in Managua, are also on the list, according to Nicaraguan media published in Costa Rica.

These arrests follow the arrest of Bishop Isidoro Mora and two seminarians on December 20, followed the following week by the arrests of Managua's Attorney General, Carlos Aviles, and priests Hector Treminio, Fernando Calero, and Pablo Villafranca. Nicaraguan police have not yet responded.

Media like La prensa, Trusted And 100% newspublished in Costa Rica, cited church sources, lawyers Martha Molina and Junarque Martinez and human rights activist Heidi Castillo, all in exile, in their condemnation.

The relationship between Nicaragua and the Vatican has been severed

On Thursday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the attack “Enforced disappearance” For more than a week in Nicaragua, Bishop Isidoro Mora, in addition to A “A new wave of arrests of clerics” Catholics. “In addition to attacking individual freedom, this violates freedom of religion, which is the pillar of any democratic state.”The Central American and Caribbean Office of this United Nations agency confirmed the social network X.

M^love Mora, 53 years old, Bishop of Senoa, is the second bishop to be arrested after the Bishop of Matagalpa, M.^love Rolando Alvarez, 57, who offered his support. Detained since August 2022, M^love Alvarez was sentenced on February 10 to twenty-six years and four months in prison for “conspiracy and spreading false news.” He had just refused to leave for the United States with 222 political prisoners who had been expelled and stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship.

President Daniel Ortega, a former fighter who has been in power since 2007, is in conflict with the Catholic Church. The Vatican closed its embassy last March and Pope Francis invited it “Total dictatorship” Mr. Ortega's government.