Managua: In a haunting pattern of repression, Nicaragua has seen the silent disappearance of 11 Christians in the past month alone a grim echo of the deepening crisis under President Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian grip.
Among the arrested is Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas of La Roca Protestant Church, a respected spiritual leader now turned political detainee without charge. Alongside her are her sister Jessica, and fellow believers Pedro López, Armando Bermúdez Mojica, and Maria Lara Rojas all reportedly swept away without explanation.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has raised a red flag, declaring these individuals victims of "enforced disappearance." Their only apparent crime: being Christians with a voice.
“This isn’t law enforcement. This is fear enforcement,” a local activist told human rights observers, speaking anonymously for safety. “Pastors and parishioners vanish, and no one knows where they are or if they’ll come back.”
Since July, the regime has escalated its assault not just on religious groups but on anyone it labels a “political opponent.” Church leaders, known for speaking truth in the face of power, are now marked targets.
The UN statement warns: “These detentions are arbitrary and politically motivated. Some of those arrested have vanished without a trace.”
President Ortega’s government once a symbol of revolution has become a machine of control, wielding silence as a weapon. The same country that once celebrated liberation now suppresses sermons.
International pressure is mounting, but inside Nicaragua, fear grows. Church doors still open, but behind them, the pews are filled with whispers, not hymns.
As one believer put it, “Faith is no longer just spiritual here. It’s an act of resistance.”