UN Office Denounces Siege against Priests in Nicaragua
HAVANA TIMES – The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights spoke out on Twitter against the actions that the Ortega-Murillo regime is committing against the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, noting that these actions confirm that no one in Nicaragua is spared persecution.
“Nicaragua: The police harassment of Catholic priests confirms that in Nicaragua no one is spared from the incessant persecution of dissent, the demand for justice, and now, pastoral work. Freedom of religion is added to the other restricted human rights,” the publication states.
In recent weeks, Daniel Ortega’s regime has intensified its harassment of and siege against Catholics in Nicaragua, which began last Saturday with the persecution of the parish priest of the San Juan Bautista Church in Masaya, Harving Padilla, who a few minutes ago reported that more agents of the Sandinista police and patrols closed all the entrances that lead to the parish in Masaya.
“The whole block is surrounded, there is no access to the church at all. They have closed the streets, the parishioners tell me,” Padilla told 100%Noticias.
Similarly, agents of Ortega’s Police also closed the streets that give access to the Santo Cristo de Las Colinas Church in Managua, a parish where Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa has taken refuge, and has begun an indefinite fast.
On May 19, Álvarez, who is also the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, denounced that police agents chased and harassed him throughout the day on Thursday. They even entered his family’s home, putting his loved ones at risk.
“Today I have been persecuted throughout the day by the Sandinista Police, from the morning until night, and at all times, throughout the day,” he denounced in a video on the Facebook page of the Diocese of Matagalpa.
The acute persecution led Alvarez to seek refuge at the Santo Cristo de Las Colinas Church on the outskirts of Managua where he is now fasting.
In another related event in the stepped/up repression against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, their cable TV channel 51, where among its programming mass could be watched by those unable to attend, was suddenly ordered off the air as of May 20th by the government.