Fr. Enrique Martínez Gamboa was arrested on 13 October in the capital Managua, Nicaragua. The social networks of the country released this news by Fr. Uriel Vallejos, a priest in exile since September in Italy.
“Yesterday at 5:00 pm, the parish priest of the Santa Martha parish, Managua, was kidnapped. Father Enrique Martínez G. The Priests and the Catholic Church, demand the liberation and the cessation of the persecution against the Church and the clergy. Justice, freedom and Democracy! ”, He wrote on his Twitter account.
The Human Rights Collective “Nicaragua Nunca +” stated on its Twitter account that the whereabouts of Fr. Martínez are not known so far.
According to this organization, “with this arbitrary arrest, the number of priests deprived of their liberty rises to 11, including Msgr. Rolando Álvarez, who has been illegally in ‘home shelter’ for 72 days.”
“The religious persecution against the Catholic Church by the Ortega Murillo regime continues,” he denounced, referring to President Daniel Ortega and his wife and his vice president Rosario Murillo.
Likewise, he indicated that he demanded “the end of the repression, the freedom of the priests and of the more than 219 political prisoners in Nicaragua.”
Other priests detained in Nicaragua are Fr. Óscar Danilo Benavidez, from the Diocese of Siuna, who is in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance -El Chipote-, with the general rector of the Juan Pablo II University, Fr. Ramiro Tijerino Chávez; the vicar of the Cathedral of Matagalpa, Fr. José Luis Díaz Cruz, and his predecessor, Fr. Sadiel Antonio Eugarrios Cano.
Also in El Chipote are Deacon Raúl Antonio Vega; the seminarians Darvin Leiva Mendoza and Melkin Centeno and the layman Sergio Cadena Flores.