Two Catholic lay readers have been released into house arrest in Nicaragua, after being imprisoned in isolation for 16 months.
Roman Catholic lay leaders Carmen María Sáenz Martínez and Lesbia del Socorro Gutiérrez Poveda were arrested on 10th August 2024.
Poveda, then 58, was arrested by 15 police officers wearing ski masks and carrying AK-47s who raided her home in Lomas de Santo Tomas, Matagalpa City in the early hours of the morning.Martínez, then age 49, was detained two hours later in the San Ramón Municipality by police in patrol cars.
The two were taken to a maximum security prison.
Neither woman was ever charged, tried or sentenced for a crime – yet each were held in incommunicado detention, meaning they had no contact with their lawyers, and family members were even denied proof of life.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) have commended their release, as part of a small group of political prisoners – yet urged the Nicaraguan government to let them go fully.
“Neither Carmen María Sáenz Martínez nor Lesbia del Socorro Gutiérrez Poveda should be under house arrest,” Anna Lee Strangek, CSW’s director of advocacy said. “This nonetheless marks an improvement on [what] they were subjected for over a year.”
Two pastors, Pastor Efrén Antonio Vílchez López, and Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas, are still missing after being arrested in the country.
“We call on the government of Nicaragua to grant them their full freedom without condition,” Strangek said, “and to immediately release all remaining political prisoners including Pastor Efrén Antonio Vílchez López, and Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas and those detained alongside him.”