“Because I refused, I was turned over to torture. Even so, I was sentenced to 16 years [in prison]. Eleven months later I got out because of an amnesty law, and then I always kept on doing human rights activism,” he continued.
In 2021, “I was abducted again and sentenced to 13 more years in jail,” he said. He was released after 19 months in prison.
Mairena, who was one of the 222 political prisoners deported to the U.S. by the Ortega regime in February, explained that living in exile “is nothing compared to what our compatriots are going through inside Nicaragua, those who resist from jail.”
“Today we still have more than 80 political prisoners, including our spiritual guides such as five priests and one of the most beloved bishops in Nicaragua … who is paying with a 26-year sentence just for being a defender of human rights, for doing what he as a spiritual guide has been doing. He is a disciple of Jesus Christ who announces and denounces, as the holy Scripture says.”
Perhaps the main victim of the dictatorship is the above-referenced Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, who has been unjustly imprisoned since Feb. 10, accused of being a traitor to the country and sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison.
The dictatorship of Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, in power since 2007, recently expropriated Central American University (UCA), founded by the Jesuits, and evicted the six Jesuits living in the residence next to the university.