At least 63 Nicaraguans, mostly opponents and critics of the government led by Daniel Ortega, including four priests, were arrested last May on charges of crimes considered “treason” and others, according to a report released this Saturday by the so-called Blue and White Surveillance.

From May 1 to 31, 63 “arbitrary” detentions were recorded in 13 of Nicaragua’s 15 departments and in the two autonomous regions, including students and independent professionals, as well as four priests, reported the Blue and White Monitoring, whose reports are endorsed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

In May, Nicaraguan authorities also prosecuted 81 opponents and critics, including some of the 63 arrested that month, according to the Monitoring’s special report on human rights abuses.

Of the total number of defendants, 53 are men and 28 are women, he stressed.

In total, Blauw-Wit Monitoring recorded 228 incidents of human rights violations that took place across the country against 158 ​​people between May 1 and May 31, 2023.

These incidents include 81 prosecutions with alternative measures, 63 “arbitrary” detentions, 29 for harassment, 27 legal professionals permanently disqualified from practicing the law, 16 threats, 10 with migratory “repression”, 2 assaults, and one death in unclear circumstances after detention, the report said.

In the case of the four priests arrested in May, one has been released and the rest are still in custody, Monitoring said.

The Nicaraguan police accused the Nicaraguan Catholic Church of “money laundering” last Saturday and ordered Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes to present documents showing the movements of the bank accounts of the dioceses that intervened.

Police are investigating Father Jaime Montesinos, pastor of the Diocese of Matagalpa (North), led by imprisoned Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was sentenced last February to more than 26 years in prison for crimes deemed “treason”.

It is also investigating two other priests for “administrative matters” from the disbanded Cáritas Diocesana de Estelí, northern Nicaragua, which Álvarez also administers, and a fourth was released.

Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018 that has been exacerbated after the controversial November 7, 2021 general election, in which Ortega was re-elected to a fifth term, fourth in a row, and second alongside his wife, Rosario Murillo, as Vice President , with its main contenders in prison or exile.