The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo exiled seven more Catholic priests to Rome, who were arrested between July 26 and August 5. However, they left two priests in Nicaragua: Monsignor Frutos Valle (80), Administrator ad omnia of the Diocese of Estelí, and Friar Francisco Tercero González, who is currently in the Jorge Navarro La Modelo National Penitentiary System, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
Rosario Murillo, vice president and spokesperson of the regime, confirmed the exile of the religious figures this Thursday and assured that they “arrived safely” in Rome.
The list of new exiled priests
A source confirmed to LA PRENSA that on August 7 that the Ortega-Murillo regime sent seven of the priests it had arrested since July 26 to the Vatican. The source stated that, in reality, the regime recently imprisoned 11 religious figures, despite varying reports about the number of priests under arrest. The next day, Murillo confirmed the exile of seven priests, but she did not make reference to any other presbyter.
Our source indicated that Father Raúl Villegas, a Mexican national and parish priest of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Matiguás, was deported hours after being kidnapped on August 2.
This Thursday, the dictatorship’s spokesperson, Rosario Murillo, confirmed the exile of seven priests as part of the “routes of peace.”
“Yesterday, Wednesday, August 7, seven Nicaraguan priests left Nicaragua for Rome. They have arrived safely and were received at the Holy See,” Murillo said in a statement she read during her usual address on the dictatorship’s media outlets.
The priests sent to the Vatican in this new group of exiles are:
—Fray Silvio Romero (Diocese of Chontales)
—Harvin Tórrez (Diocese of Matagalpa)
—Edgard Sacasa (Diocese of Matagalpa)
—Víctor Godoy (Diocese of Matagalpa)
—Jairo Pravia (Diocese of Matagalpa)
—Ulises Vega (Diocese of Matagalpa)
—Marlon Velásquez (Diocese of Matagalpa)
On August 1, La Prensa posted an article that reported that 143 priests had been expelled since April 2018, when the dictatorship unleashed a wave of repression against Nicaraguans protesting draconian reforms to the social security system. When the Catholic Church denounced the state violence, the regime accused it of being part of an alleged “coup attempt”.
According to a count carried out by La Prensa, as of 2021 there were 611 clerics in the ecclesiastical province of Nicaragua, composed of eight dioceses and one archdiocese.
Also read: Series | The Dictatorship has expelled more than 23% of the clergy in Nicaragua since 2018
The accusation against father Tercero
According to one of the sources familiar with the matter, Father Francisco Tercero could be accused by the regime of child abuse, following a public accusation made by a social media user on August 1. In the Nicarao judicial digital information system, there are no open cases against the priest.
On August 1, a social media user identified as Ana accused the priest, who was the parish priest of the Church of Santa Faustina Kowalska in Solingalpa, Diocese of Matagalpa, of allegedly behaving inappropriately with her during a confession 10 years ago, when she was an 11-year-old minor.
Father Tercero responded through a statement on his social media accounts on the evening of Thursday, August 1, asserting that this is all part of a smear campaign.
I want to inform our faithful, friends, and those who have shared this degrading post that the competent authorities are already following up to clarify this situation,” the priest said in a statement.
However, the next day, the church was surrounded by agents of the National Police, serving the dictatorship. The last Mass he presided over was on August 4, according to posts on his parish’s Facebook page.