A bishop associated with the Renewed Moravian Evangelical Church (IEMR) has been detained incommunicado in Managua, Nicaragua for almost two weeks.
CSW sources report Bishop Carlos Javier Goff Amador, who is originally from Honduras but holds Nicaraguan citizenship, was detained without a warrant by the National Police (PN) in Bilwi in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (RACCN) on 1 September and transferred to the District 3 police station in Managua.
The PN have not officially informed his family of his whereabouts or the charges against him, however unofficial reports suggest Bishop Goff Amador is under investigation for alleged ties to organised crime and money laundering. The judiciary’s online platform for checking prisoner records lists neither the bishop’s name nor the grounds for his detention.
This is not the first time the Nicaraguan government has levelled charges of serious criminal activity against a religious leader. In December 2020 Protestant Pastor Wilber Alberto Pérez was arbitrarily detained on the Managua waterfront for promoting the ‘Christmas without Political Prisoners’ campaign. He was subsequently falsely convicted of selling illegal drugs, and in March 2021 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was ultimately released into exile as part of a group of 222 political prisoners sent to the United States in February 2023.
Bishop Goff Amador’s detention coincides with a wave of arrests in the RACCN, including in the Mining Triangle. While most of the individuals were released within a day, some remain missing. CSW sources also reported further arbitrary detentions of religious leaders in the Mining Triangle. Their names remain confidential out of respect for their families’ wishes.
Bishop Goff Amador was a friend of the late Brooklyn Rivera Bryan, a Nicaraguan indigenous activist and political leader. Mr Rivera Bryan was arbitrarily detained in September 2023 and died aged 73 whilst still in detention in May 2026.
CSW’s Director of Advocacy and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl said: ‘CSW condemns the incommunicado detention of Bishop Carlos Javier Goff Amador. We call on the Nicaraguan authorities to provide information regarding his whereabouts and the charges levelled against him, and, in the likely absence of any real grounds for his detention, to release him immediately and without condition.’
In a separate development, CSW sources report that Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata Guevara, the 80-year-old Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Estelí, has been placed under conditions amounting to house arrest at the Our Lady of the Rosary Seminary in Estelí.
Bishop Mata Guevara was subjected to a series of arbitrary detentions by the PN in Estelí from 29 June-4 July 2026, after which he was not seen in public until 12 August, when he appeared on a television programme hosted by pro-government lawmaker and journalist Adolfo Pastrán Arancibia. The appearance came one day after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) demanded urgent measures after 40 days had passed without anyone seeing the bishop.
The authorities are reported to have maintained constant surveillance outside the bishop’s house from then until he was moved to the Our Lady of the Rosary Seminary. Also held in a separate location at the seminary is the octogenarian priest Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, who was arbitrarily detained on 26 July 2024 while preparing for the ordination of three deacons in the Diocese of Estelí. Father Valle Salmerón suffers from multiple serious health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension and Parkinson’s.
Anna Lee Stangl added: ‘CSW continues to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata Guevara, Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón, and all others who have been arbitrarily detained by a regime that views their influence as religious leaders as a threat.’
Note to Editors:
- The Renewed Moravian Evangelical Church (IEMR) is distinct from the historic Moravian Church.