A Protestant pastor and seven others remain in detention in Nicaragua following a coordinated arrest operation in early July, drawing concern and condemnation from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
Founder of the La Roca de Nicaragua Church Association, Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas, was detained on 17 July alongside several relatives and associates in what CSW described as arbitrary and politically motivated arrests.
The La Roca de Nicaragua Church Association previously operated six churches across the Pacific Coast before losing its legal status in 2019.
The group is believed to be held at La Granja, a maximum-security prison notorious for overcrowding and harsh conditions.
According to eyewitness reports, police and masked “volunteer” forces conducted simultaneous raids on multiple homes in Jinotepe, Carazo Department, forcibly detaining Pastor Palacios Vargas, his sister Jéssica Vargas, her husband, Pedro José López, brother-in-law Armando José Bermudez Mojica and two other associates, political activist Mauricio Alonso Prieto and his son, a worship team member at the church.
Olga María Lara Rojas, a family friend, Protestant Christian and retired political councillor, was apprehended independently at her residence.
Authorities failed to produce arrest warrants and proceeded to seize the detainees’ electronic devices, CSW said.
Relatives have received no official updates on the detainees' locations or wellbeing.
According to a report by Nicaraguan media outlet 100% Noticias on 28 July, several of the detainees, including Pastor Palacios Vargas, had been transferred to La Granja after a rapid virtual hearing.
They face charges of treason and conspiracy. However, no details have been released about potential sentencing or the legal status of the others who remain in custody.
Pastor Palacios Vargas has persistently spoken out against the Ortega-Murillo government, particularly following the deadly crackdown on student-led protests in 2018.
In the wake of threats to him and his family, he sought refuge outside Nicaragua in July that year.
Shortly after, security personnel, alongside paramilitary collaborators, killed no fewer than three members of his church.
The pastor came back in December 2020 after a cancer diagnosis and has reportedly lived under constant police surveillance since January 2021 — conditions described by CSW as de facto house arrest.
CSW is calling on the Nicaraguan authorities to release Pastor Palacios Vargas and all the others detained alongside him immediately, and is urging “members of the international community to engage available diplomatic channels to determine their well-being and to demand their release”.
Anna Lee Stangl, CSW’s Director of Advocacy said: “The arbitrary detention of Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas and his friends and family members is the culmination of years of persecution because of his willingness to openly criticise the ongoing grave violations of human rights under the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.”
