{"id":29787,"date":"2023-10-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/bishop-remains-in-prison-following-release-of-twelve-roman-catholic-priests-6100\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:10:25","slug":"bishop-remains-in-prison-following-release-of-twelve-roman-catholic-priests-6100","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/press\/bishop-remains-in-prison-following-release-of-twelve-roman-catholic-priests-6100\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop remains in prison following release of twelve Roman Catholic priests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Twelve Roman Catholic priests who had been held as political prisoners have been released and forced into exile. The 12 priests had been arbitrarily detained on various charges and for varying lengths of time, but were released following negotiations between the Vatican and the Nicaraguan government.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 18 October, the Ortega regime issued a statement<\/a> naming the 12 priests who had been released and stating that it showed \u2018the permanent will and commitment [of the Nicaraguan government] to find solutions.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Vatican News<\/a>, Matteo Bruni, the director of the press office for the Holy See confirmed that the 12 priests have gone into exile and would be welcomed and lodged in facilities belonging to the Diocese of Rome in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando \u00c1lvarez Lagos, was not named among those who were released. The bishop was placed under house arrest in August 2022, and in February 2022 was stripped of his Nicaraguan nationality and civil rights for life, and sentenced to 26 years in prison. He is currently held in the La Modelo Tititapa Prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six of the priests sent into exile were detained during the first nine days of October. On 11 October, the Human Rights Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) unanimously approved a resolution<\/a> in which they condemned the arrest of the six priests and urged the Nicaraguan government \u2018to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners\u2026 to refrain from repressing and arbitrarily detaining leaders of the Catholic Church\u2026 (and to) annul the norms that allow citizens to be arbitrarily deprived of their nationality.\u2019 The other priests had been detained for longer periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The release of the 12 priests follows a post<\/a> on X (formerly Twitter) from the Centre for Inter-American Legal Assistance in Human Rights (CALIDH) on 16 October which claimed that people are being harassed by the Nicaraguan police, with agents identifying themselves as part of the \u2018intelligence\u2019. Those affected told CALIDH that they are being offered prison or exile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Head of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said: \u2018These developments must not be viewed as gesture of good will on the part of the government. This is part of a concerning trend whereby those who are deemed critical of the government and therefore \u2018dangerous\u2019 are faced with an unjust decision of prison or exile. Whilst we welcome the release of the 12 priests who were being held as political prisoners by the Ortega regime, it is unconscionable that they were stripped of their citizenship and forced into exile in exchange for their freedom. We continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Bishop \u00c1lvarez Lagos and that of all other political prisoners. We urge the international community to hold President Ortega and his regime to account for its continued crackdown on independent voices in the country.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note to Editors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n
  1. The priests who were sent into forced exile are:
    1. Jos\u00e9 Leonardo Urbina Rodriguez \u2013 arrested July 2022 and sentenced September 2022<\/li>\n\n\n
    2. Manuel Salvador Garc\u00eda Rodr\u00edguez \u2013 sentenced on June 2022 to two years in prison<\/li>\n\n\n
    3. Jaime Iv\u00e1n Montesinos Sauceda \u2013 arrested May 2023<\/li>\n\n\n
    4. Pastor Eugenio Rodr\u00edguez Benavides \u2013 arrested May 2023<\/li>\n\n\n
    5. Fernando Israel Zamora Silva \u2013 arrested July 2023<\/li>\n\n\n
    6. Osman Jos\u00e9 Amador Guill\u00e9n \u2013 arrested September 2023<\/li>\n\n\n
    7. Julio Ricardo Norori Jim\u00e9nez – arrested October 2023<\/li>\n\n\n
    8. Crist\u00f3bal Reynaldo Gadea Vel\u00e1squez – arrested October 2023<\/li>\n\n\n
    9. \u00c1lvaro Jos\u00e9 Toledo Amador – arrested October 2023<\/li>\n\n\n
    10. Jos\u00e9 Iv\u00e1n Centeno Tercero – arrested October 2023<\/li>\n\n\n
    11. Yessner Cipriano Pineda Meneses – arrested October 2023<\/li>\n\n\n
    12. Ram\u00f3n Esteban Angulo Reyes – arrested October 2023<\/li>\n\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Twelve Roman Catholic priests who had been held as political prisoners have been released and forced into exile.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43923,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[137,142],"class_list":["post-29787","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-latin-america","regions-nicaragua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40371,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29787\/revisions\/40371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29787"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}