Daniel Ortega Supporters Desecrate Managua Cathedral and Beat a Priest
Paramilitaries and shock forces of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega desecrated and seized the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua on Monday night. They beat a priest and a nun, denounced the Archdioceses of Managua, led by Cardenal Leopoldo Brenes, in a statement.
The shock forces of Daniel Ortega with the complicity of the Police, kept seven mothers of political prisoners locked in a Cathedral hall last night. They had declared a hunger strike early on Monday demanding the release of their children before Christmas and demonstrating solidarity for nine other mothers, also on hunger strike, in the Saint Michael Church in Masaya, surrounded by riot police. Those mothers and the people accompanying them are without electricity, without water and without medicines with father Edwin Roman.
“This afternoon violent groups related to the Government have entered and taken control of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua. When they were scolded by priest Rodolfo Lopez and sister Arelys Guzman, the invaders responded violently by beating the priest and the nun,” stated the Archdioceses in a statement released on Monday night.
“On Monday evening, people from this same group broke the belfry locks and other locks of the temple desecrating in this way our Metropolitan Cathedral,” the Church said in a statement.
“We condemn these acts of desecration, besiegement and intimidation that do not contribute to the peace and stability of the country,” the Church emphasized.
The Vicar of the Archdioceses of Managua, Monsignor Carlos Aviles, confirmed in an interview with CNN that the attacks on the church in Nicaragua are the results of the “permanent political campaign” maintained by the Ortega regime to “manipulate religious symbols, readings from God’s words, religious messages for a political interest and purpose.”
Aviles stressed that one of Nicaragua’s biggest problems is that “there are no independent institutions, we have no one to turn to for justice.”
Mothers put the dictatorship in check
The mothers on hunger strike have put the dictatorship in check by using a method of civic protest. As soon as the announcement was made of the second hunger strike, the dictatorship’s Police took control of all entrances to the Cathedral.
The officers did not allow the media and people who wanted to show solidarity with the mothers to enter, but they did allow the Government shock forces to enter and attack them.
“The Police let in numerous Hilux pick-up trucks with about 20 people in each. All government supporters,” Dr. Jorge Luis Borgen told Confidencial, before the mobs stole his cell phone.
Borgen entered the Cathedral to provide assistance to the striking mothers and told Confidencial how the mobs entered the temple attacking the mothers and the priests. And stealing everything.
In a video published on social networks, it is observed how Father Lopez and sister Arelys are attacked while the mobs shouted: we want peace, we want peace.
The mobs were headed by Tomas Valdez, an old FSLN militant from the so-called Saint Paul Catholic community, who led a slander campaign against Monsignor Silvio Baez, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, who today is in a forced exile in the Vatican.