In La Prensa November 21, 2024
The head of the Police, Francisco Díaz, said to Mons. Carlos Herrera that he had committed treason against the homeland, a “crime” which was punished with banishment.
With excess violence, officials of the Ortega police took Mons. Carlos Enrique Herrera, Bishop of the Diocese of Jinotega, out of his vehicle while arresting him this past November 13 in Managua, according to what knowledgeable sources told La Prensa, who preferred to omit their names out of fear of reprisals.
The dictatorship banished Bishop Herrera, 75 years of age, to Guatemala three days after the hierarch pointed out that the mayor of Jinotega, Ortega supporter Leónidas Centeno, committed a sacrilege by playing loud music to interrupt masses.
La Prensa learned that Herrera and his assistant, Emily Silva, held a meeting in the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) in Managua in which the Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes was also present, and on that occasion, was escorted by more police than normal.
“When he left the meeting and was on his way back to Jinotega, two patrol cars and three pickup trucks stopped him. When the police opened the doors of the pickup truck, they took him out of the vehicle a lot of violence and passed him to one of their pickup trucks,” said the source.
Díaz arrested, accused and condemned them
The arrest was at noon and the police took him to District Three, where they remained for more than five hours. According to the source, Francisco Díaz, the first commissioner of the Police and an in-law of the dictator Daniel Ortega, was waiting for them in the police station.
The source said that Díaz stated that Herrera committed the crime of treason of the homeland for “pitting the population against the government through his homilies” and that that crime “is paid with banishment” and that that was the punishments for those who formed part of the “Catholic mafia”.
Later, Police officers took Herrera to the airport, gave him a passport, and forced him to get on the plane headed to Guatemala. The sources knowledgeable about the topic said that like Herrera, it is assumed that his secretary, Emily Silva, also was banished.
Herrera sent 10 letters to the mayor asking for respect for the mass
La Prensa knew through sources in Jinotega that Mons. Carlos Herrera sent at least ten letters to the mayor of that municipality, Leónidas Centeno, asking him to not interrupt the Eucharists with music.
Nevertheless, on November 10, Mons. Herrera said in one Eucharist that the mayor committed sacrilege by playing loud music outside the church, interrupting the celebration.
Surveillance after banishment
After the banishment of the Bishop of Jinotega, the regime implemented more surveillance to prevent any criticism, according to what local sources told La Prensa.
“You should know that before they would come to monitor us. In the town all of us know who the paramilitaries are. They always come to the mass, but now we have seen more than those who normally show up. They do not miss a mass since they took Mons. Herrera away,” said the source.
One parishioner said that “sometimes they send a patrol car to park close to the Cathedral, but other times they just send it to be passing by.”
“Some people from the communities have preferred to not come to mass for some days, while things calm down,” she said.
In addition, the source pointed out that the Cathedral of Jinotega was left under the administration of Father Mauricio Pérez, Vicar General of the Diocese.
Persecution since the ordinations in Matagalpa
The tension of the dictatorship against Herrera increased on July 20 of this year, after the Bishop ordained priests in the Diocese of Matagalpa, according to local sources.
“In the wake of the ordinations the persecution increased, because the Government said that they were sent by Mons. Rolando Álvarez, but it is not true. But as of then began the daily visits of the Police and they would show up with more boldness to record the homilies,” related a parishioner.
Between April 2018 and July 2024 at least 245 religious no longer carry out their pastoral work in Nicaragua due to the repression from the Ortega Murillo regime against the Catholic Church, as the fifth edition of the report Nicaragua: ¿un Iglesia perseguida? describes, which was presented in September by the lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina.