{"id":29969,"date":"2025-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/roman-catholic-priest-arbitrarily-detained-and-held-incommunicado-6554\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:14:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:14:04","slug":"roman-catholic-priest-arbitrarily-detained-and-held-incommunicado-6554","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/press\/roman-catholic-priest-arbitrarily-detained-and-held-incommunicado-6554\/","title":{"rendered":"Roman Catholic priest arbitrarily detained and held incommunicado"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Note: CSW sources have confirmed that<\/i>Father Pedro Abelardo M\u00e9ndez P\u00e9rez was released on 1 July. His driver Luis David \u00d1amendi Su\u00e1rez \u200bhas also been released\u200b.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Roman Catholic Priest and his driver have been detained and held for over a week in Granada Municipality, Nicaragua, with no news given to their families of their whereabouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a press release issued by the Public Relations Department of the National Police of Nicaragua (PN) on Thursday 19 June, Father Pedro Abelardo M\u00e9ndez P\u00e9rez and his driver Luis David \u00d1amendi Su\u00e1rez were detained at a police checkpoint at 7pm in the evening of 19 June in Granada and accused of being in \u2018a state of drunkenness\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both men were reported by the PN to have had more than one gram of alcohol in their bloodstream and were arrested for the \u2018crime of exposing people to danger, by threatening the security of people and their families, violating the Transit Law\u2019. Under normal circumstances, were the accusations true, the law should only have been applied to the driver, making the detention of the passenger, Father M\u00e9ndez P\u00e9rez, arbitrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father M\u00e9ndez P\u00e9rez serves in the parish of Santa Mar\u00eda Magdalena in Monimb\u00f3, Masaya Department. He is an open critic of co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, having denounced violations against protesters in the April 2018 protests. In June 2018 he was subjected to threats and physical violence. In March 2023 he called for a day of prayer on behalf of then imprisoned Bishop Rolando Jos\u00e9 \u00c1lvarez Lagos<\/a> and evaded PN attempts to arrest him in retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Nicaragua remain severe and numerous<\/a>. Leaders of different religious groups frequently report that they are subjected to regular harassment and surveillance by the police. Some have been placed under what the government refers to as \u2018precautionary measures\u2019 which require them to make weekly, in person reports to local police and to share details of their planned activities, and bans them from leaving their municipality without government authorisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Pedro Abelardo M\u00e9ndez P\u00e9rez joins a growing number of religious leaders and lay leaders who have been arbitrarily detained by the dictatorship. In May 2022 Protestant Pastor Efr\u00e9n Antonio V\u00edlchez L\u00f3pez<\/a> was beaten and detained, he is serving a 23-year sentence on trumped up charges. In August 2024 Roman Catholic lay leaders\u202fCarmen Mar\u00eda S\u00e1enz Mart\u00ednez and Lesbia del Socorro Guti\u00e9rrez Poveda<\/a> were\u202fdetained<\/a>\u202fand have now spent over nine months in incommunicado detention with no proof of life provided to their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said: \u2018Given that Father Pedro Abelardo M\u00e9ndez P\u00e9rez was not driving, the Nicaraguan authorities had no grounds upon which to arrest him for supposedly violating the Transit Law. Even were the charges based in fact, the driver of the vehicle, Luis David \u00d1amendi Su\u00e1rez, should only have been detained for a maximum of 12 hours. The Nicaraguan government must immediately release Father Pedro Abelardo M\u00e9ndez P\u00e9rez and his driver. We urge the international community to increase pressure on the Nicaraguan government by using targeted sanctions against those responsible for violations of freedom of religion or belief, and to push for the release of all political prisoners.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

    \n\n

  1. Article 26 of Transit Law 431 states anyone caught driving with alcohol levels between one and two grams per litre of blood, can be fined 4,000 c\u00f3rdobas (approximately \u00a349 GBP). Article 27 states that, in addition to the fine, the person can be detained for up to 12 hours.<\/p><\/li>\n\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A Roman Catholic Priest and his driver have been detained and held for over a week in Granada Municipality, Nicaragua, with no news given to their families of their whereabouts.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44105,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[137,142],"class_list":["post-29969","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\/29969","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\/29969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40555,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29969\/revisions\/40555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29969"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}