{"id":30034,"date":"2025-12-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/roman-catholic-lay-leaders-released-into-house-arrest-6688\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:15:16","slug":"roman-catholic-lay-leaders-released-into-house-arrest-6688","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/press\/roman-catholic-lay-leaders-released-into-house-arrest-6688\/","title":{"rendered":"Roman Catholic lay leaders released into house arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2440c67b17908b9b972f129262c39c07.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Roman Catholic lay leaders Carmen Mar\u00eda S\u00e1enz Mart\u00ednez and Lesbia del Socorro Guti\u00e9rrez Poveda were released into house arrest in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, after spending nearly 16 months in incommunicado detention, on 29 November.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two women were detained on 10 August 2024. Ms Guti\u00e9rrez Poveda, who was 58 years old at the time, was arrested by at least 15 police officers wearing ski masks and carrying AK-47s who raided her home in Lomas de Santo Tomas in Matagalpa City at approximately 6am. Ms S\u00e1enz Mart\u00ednez, then age 49, was detained two hours later at the Guadalupana Farm in Samulali in the San Ram\u00f3n Municipality by police in two patrol cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both women worked with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Matagalpa, formerly led by the now exiled Bishop Rolando Jos\u00e9 \u00c1lvarez Lagos.\u202fThe two were believed to be being held in La Esperanza women\u2019s prison, but were denied any contact with their families or lawyers \u2013 including proof of life \u2013 for the duration of their detention. They have not been charged, tried or sentenced for any crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two were among a small group of political prisoners released into house arrest over the weekend of 29-30 November. Other prominent political prisoners, including Protestant pastor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/2025\/10\/20\/report\/6643\/article.htm\/\">Efr\u00e9n Antonio V\u00edlchez L\u00f3pez<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/forbinfull.org\/2025\/08\/04\/pastor-rudy-palacios-vargas-dared-to-speak-out-against-injustice-in-nicaragua-for-that-he-has-been-labelled-a-murderer-and-a-terrorist\/\">Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas and several of his friends and family<\/a>, have not been released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CSW\u2019s Director of Advocacy and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl said: <b><i>\u2018While neither Carmen Mar\u00eda S\u00e1enz Mart\u00ednez nor Lesbia del Socorro Guti\u00e9rrez Poveda should be under house arrest, this nonetheless marks an improvement on the incommunicado detention and solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison to which they were subjected for over a year. We call on the government of Nicaragua to grant them their full freedom without condition, and to immediately release all remaining political prisoners including Pastor Efr\u00e9n Antonio V\u00edlchez L\u00f3pez, and Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas and those detained alongside him.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roman Catholic lay leaders Carmen Mar\u00eda S\u00e1enz Mart\u00ednez and Lesbia del Socorro Guti\u00e9rrez Poveda were released into house arrest in Matagalpa on 29 November.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44170,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[137,142],"class_list":["post-30034","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\/30034","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\/30034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40620,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30034\/revisions\/40620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30034"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=30034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}