Last month, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accused Catholic leaders of being a “gang of murderers,” claiming that bishops in Nicaragua called on protesters to kill him during 2018 demonstrations, and scorning Pope Francis’ call for dialogue in the country. Now, according to exiled Nicaraguan priest Uriel Vallejos, another Catholic priest was irregularly arrested and taken into custody.
On October 14, Fr. Uriel Vallejos, in exile in Italy since early September, denounced the “kidnapping” of Nicaraguan priest Enrique Martínez, parish priest of the Santa Marta parish in Managua.
In his personal Twitter account, Fr. Vallejos said, “Yesterday [October 13] at 5:00 p.m., the parish priest of St. Martha’s Church in Managua, Father Enrique Martínez G., was kidnapped […] The priests and the Catholic Church demand the liberation and the cessation of the persecution against the Church and the clergy. Justice, freedom and democracy!”