{"id":30046,"date":"2026-01-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/protestant-pastor-and-friends-and-family-released-from-prison-after-six-6704\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:15:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:15:29","slug":"protestant-pastor-and-friends-and-family-released-from-prison-after-six-6704","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/protestant-pastor-and-friends-and-family-released-from-prison-after-six-6704\/","title":{"rendered":"Protestant pastor and friends and family released from prison after six months arbitrary detention"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Protestant pastor and five of his friends and family members were released from prison after spending nearly six months in incommunicado detention in Granada Department, Nicaragua on 10 January.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas, the founder of La Roca de Nicaragua Church Association, his sister, two brothers-in-law, a member of the church worship team and a family friend were among a group of 20 political prisoners confirmed to have been released by the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua in a statement issued<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group were arbitrarily detained<\/a> on 17 July 2025 in Jinotepe, Carazo Department as part of a coordinated police operation. Armed, uniformed police officers and \u2018volunteer\u2019 officers wearing masks and dressed in black or blue forced their way into the homes of Pastor Palacios Vargas, his sister J\u00e9ssica Palacios Vargas, and his brothers-in-law Pedro Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez and Armando Jos\u00e9 Berm\u00fadez Mojica. Mauricio Alonso Petri, a political activist and friend of the pastor, his adult son Mauricio Alonso Estrada, who is a part of the worship team at Pastor Palacios Vargas\u2019 church were detained as well. Family friend Olga Mar\u00eda Lara Rojas, a former political councillor who is a Protestant Christian but not a member of Pastor Palacios Vargas\u2019 church, was also arrested at her home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No arrest warrants were shown but all of those listed above were arrested and detained and reportedly taken to the 3rd Police District. The detainees\u2019 mobile phones and other electronic devices were confiscated. No information as to their whereabouts was provided to the victims\u2019 family members for all six months of their detention, in what amounted to enforced disappearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor Rudy Palacios, J\u00e9ssica Palacios and Armando Berm\u00fadez have been released into house arrest. CSW sources report that they are under surveillance and their movements are restricted. Olga Lara Rojas, Mauricio Alonso\u202fEstrada and Pedro Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez\u202fhave been released under \u2018precautionary measures\u2019 which require them to report to their local police stations to sign in on a regular basis. Mauricio Alonso Petri died in detention<\/a> in August 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protestant pastor\u202fEfr\u00e9n Antonio V\u00edlchez L\u00f3pez<\/a>, who is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence on false charges, was not among the 20 political prisoners released on 10 January. Pastor V\u00edlchez L\u00f3pez has been imprisoned since May 2022 due to his public condemnation of the government\u2019s use of violence against protesters during demonstrations in April 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Director of Advocacy and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl said:\u202f\u2018While we are grateful that these individuals will be reunited with some of their loved ones after nearly six months in incommunicado detention, neither Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas nor his friends and family members should be under house arrest or precautionary measures. Their release does not undo the injustice committed against them. 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. We call on the international community to maintain pressure on the Ortega-Murillo regime to ensure human rights are upheld and that their crimes do not go unpunished.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Protestant pastor and five of his friends and family members were released from prison after spending nearly six months in incommunicado detention in Granada Department, Nicaragua on 10 January.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44182,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[137,142],"class_list":["post-30046","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-latin-america","regions-nicaragua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40632,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30046\/revisions\/40632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30046"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=30046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}