Pope Urges Dialogue As More Nicaraguan Priests Arrested

Fourteen Nicaraguan priests have now been arrested in a crackdown on the Catholic Church in the Central American country, prompting Pope Francis to call for dialogue during his Monday prayer.

According to a list drawn up by Martha Molina, an expert on Nicaraguan church affairs who is exiled in the United States, priest Gustavo Sandino from the northern region of Jinotega was arrested on New Year's Eve.

His detention was the latest in a wave of arrests under iron-fisted leftist President Daniel Ortega, which began on December 20 with the detention of Bishop Isidoro Mora.

"I am closely following what is happening in Nicaragua, where bishops and priests are deprived of their liberty," Pope Frances said in Rome on Monday.

"I wish for us to always seek the path of dialogue to overcome difficulties. Let us pray for Nicaragua today."

The relationship between the Church and Ortega's government deteriorated during protests against social security reforms in 2018, which the UN estimates left about 300 people dead.

Ortega accused the religious community of backing the opposition during the demonstrations, after the church sheltered protesters.

The protests kicked off what rights activists see as a severe repression of anyone perceived as a critic of the government.

Neither the government nor police have commented on the latest arrests.

Ortega is a former guerrilla leader who helped lead a revolution that toppled a US-backed right-wing regime in 1979. He then ruled the country for more than a decade.

He returned to power in 2007, and has been accused of authoritarianism as he exiled and jailed dissidents and rivals, quashed presidential term limits and seized control of all branches of the state.

The Central American nation has shuttered more than 3,000 associations, NGOs and unions in the wake of 2018 protests.

Hundreds of critics have been detained, including several people who sought to challenge Ortega ahead of presidential elections in 2021.

In October, the authorities shuttered the local office of the Franciscans, a Catholic order.

The arrests of seek to "silence and exterminate the Catholic Church," Molina told AFP.

A dozen organizations grouping exiled Nicaraguans on Sunday called in a statement for the international community to "remove all economic and political support" to the country, and help obtain the release of 120 jailed dissidents