• Daniel Ortega Tightens His Iron Fist Against the Catholic Church
  • Dictatorship: Daniel Ortega's Violent Night Raid to Decapitate Internal Resistance

Nicaragua's Catholic Church has launched a desperate cry for help to the world in the face of caudillo Daniel Ortega's latest barrage against it. "The Sandinista dictatorship has unleashed this week a ferocious hunt against priests, taking several of them to prison, in addition to two bishops who were already imprisoned," Monsignor Silvio José Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua in exile, testified on his social networks.

"I beg the bishops and episcopal conferences of the world not to abandon us at this time, to pray for the Church of Nicaragua and to show solidarity and raise their voices denouncing this persecution of the dictatorship against our Church!" added the bishop, one of the great symbols in the struggle against the revolutionary regime, from exile.

Two of his companions, rebel Bishop Rolando Álvarez, considered the Nicaraguan Mandela, and Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora, of the diocese of Siuna, remain in prison on the orders of Ortega and his wife, co-president Rosario Murillo. Monsignor Álvarez, sentenced to 26 years in prison for tradition to the homeland, has already served 500 days in the worst cells of the dictatorship, from where he was exhibited on a couple of occasions by the Sandinista propaganda apparatus. Mora regrets that in his prayers he has included Álvarez, detested by the presidential couple after ruining the plan to banish all his enemies.

In recent hours, the number of priests kidnapped by police agents and Sandinista paramilitary forces has increased. Five priests fell into government hands on Friday: Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, director of the John Paul II Institute, was captured after giving the Eucharist in the parish of Santa Faz; Father Mykel Monterrey, parish priest of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria in Managua, was kidnapped at midnight; Monsignor Miguel Mántica and priests Raúl Zamora and Gerardo José Rodríguez.

A total of 16 religious were arrested, although two of them, priests Jader Guido and Óscar Escoto, were released in custody.

Murillo took advantage of his daily homily on state channels to attack these "diabolical" priests. "The most ridiculous and amusing thing is that there are those who with diabolical words and feelings speak of faith. The real devils are those who were sowing hatred," said Ortega's wife.


  • Nicaragua