Rosario Murillo, wife of dictator Daniel Ortega and vice president of Nicaragua, announced that seven priests left the Central American country and have arrived “safely” at the Vatican.

Without further explanation, Murillo announced that on Aug. 7 “seven Nicaraguan priests left Nicaragua for Rome and arrived safely and were received by the Holy See.” 

The audio communiqué was aired by Channel 4 Nicaragua and other pro-government media. Murillo mentioned the priests’ departure twice in her nearly 13-minute news briefing, without specifying their names.

Since July 26, a total of nine priests have been detained in the dioceses of Matagalpa, Estelí, and Juigalpa, to be later held in the Interdiocesan Seminary of Our Lady of Fatima in Managua.

According to researcher Martha Patricia Molina, author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?”, the priests detained by the dictatorship are: Monsignor Ulises Vega Matamoros, Monsignor Edgar Sacasa Sierra, Father Víctor Godoy, Father Jairo Pravia Flores, Father Marlon Velásquez, Father Jarvin Torrez, and Father Raúl Villegas, all of them from the clergy of the Diocese of Matagalpa; Fray Silvio Romero from the Diocese of Juigalpa; and Father Frutos Constantino Valle Salmerón from the Diocese of Estelí.

According to the Nicaraguan newspaper Mosaico, on Aug. 7 seven of the nine priests were taken from the seminary and sent to Rome.

The news outlet stated that the whereabouts of Villegas are unknown, while it is believed that Valle Salmerón — administrator “ad omnia” of the Diocese of Estelí in the absence of the exiled apostolic administrator of the diocese, Bishop Rolando Álvarez — was left at the seminary.

Vatican News reported in a news brief the names of the priests who arrived in Rome: Víctor Godoy, Jairo Pravia, Silvio Romero, Edgar Sacasa, Harvin Torres, Ulises Vega, and Marlon Velázquez.

Vatican News also noted that this is the fifth group of priests exiled from Nicaragua: In October 2022 and February 2023 two groups were exiled to the United States, while in October 2023 and January 2024 two other groups left for Rome.

Matagalpa is the diocese of Bishop Álvarez, a human rights defender and critic of the dictatorship who was held under house arrest for months and eventually sentenced to 26 years in prison in February 2023 in a controversial judicial process.

He was finally deported in January of this year to Rome, where he now lives in exile.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.