In January 2024 the Ortega regime released from jail 2 bishops, 15 priests and 2 seminarians, the result of a negotiation between the Vatican and the Ortega government. But laypeople who accompanied those priest still remain in jail. This article focuses on one such prisoner of conscience.
A Catholic man, Salvador Alfonso Paguaga has spent 237 days as a political prisoner
In Artículo 66, July 5, 2024
The Reflection Group of Former Political Prisoners (GREX) denounced this Friday, July 5th, that the Nicaraguan Salvador Alfonso Paguaga Altimirano, 38 years of age, has spent 237 days since repressive agents of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo arbitrarily jailed him.
Through their official Facebook page, the civic organization stated that “the conviction of Salvador Paguaga is an obvious sign of the terrible and systematic religious persecution unleashed by the totalitarian regime of Nicaragua” and emphasized that the Catholic citizen has endured 237 days of “unjust, arbitrary and cruel imprisonment”.
Paguaga is from the municipality of Ocotal, has a licentiate in public accounting and a worker in a financial entity and the father to two children, 7 and 10 years of age. He was arrested on November 7, 2023 along with the priest Yesner Cipriano Pineda and another collaborator of the communications media of the Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Ocotal in the Nueva Segovia province.
The arrest of Paguaga happened in the midst of a repressive wave of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against Catholic priests in different provinces of the country. By the end of December 2023 the repression had resulted in the detention of 15 priests, two seminarians and more than 15 laypeople, including Salvador Paguaga.
The reason for the persecution was a video that Paguaga filmed and put on Facebook, where the priest Yesner Pineda quoted a phrase of Saint Theresa of Calcutta: “Pain and suffering have entered your life, but remember that pain, sadness and suffering are nothing more than the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have gotten so close to Him that He can kiss you.”
Likewise, the message disseminated over social networks also included a reflection on faith, prayer and hope as strengths of a disciple of Christ, and a call to prayer for the Catholic Church.
GREX demands of the dictatorial couple the immediate and unconditional release of Salvador Paguaga, as well as all the political prisoners who remained subjected to cruel treatment and unhealthy conditions within Ortega´s jails.
Currently the Ortega-Murillo regime has 141 Nicaraguans jailed as prisoners of conscience, subjected to torture, irregular legal processes and unhealthy conditions within their cells, as the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners reported.
The organization recorded numerous cases of torture and bad treatment within the prisons. Political prisoners denounced beatings, harassment in the early mornings, death threats and psychological abuse, like prolonged isolation and being jailed with highly dangerous common prisoners who threaten them with death and beatings.
