Nicaraguan ex-military officer killed in exile, wife and party say
SAN JOSE, June 19 (Reuters) - Former Nicaraguan military officer Roberto Samcam was killed on Thursday in Costa Rica, where he was living in exile, his wife and the UNAMOS political party said.
Samcam, a retired Sandinista major, was a vocal critic of the Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega. Costa Rica's national police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Nicaraguan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Reuters
10 hours ago
- Reuters
Nicaraguan ex-military officer killed in exile, wife and party say
SAN JOSE, June 19 (Reuters) - Former Nicaraguan military officer Roberto Samcam was killed on Thursday in Costa Rica, where he was living in exile, his wife and the UNAMOS political party said. Samcam, a retired Sandinista major, was a vocal critic of the Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega. Costa Rica's national police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Nicaraguan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Independent
2 days ago
- The Independent
Religious leaders released from Nicaraguan prison say their experience only strengthens their faith
God's message didn't immediately make sense to pastor José Luis Orozco. But when U.S. efforts resulted in his release from a Nicaraguan prison a few months later, everything became clear. 'The Lord had told me: 'Don't be afraid, José Luis. A wind will blow from the north, your chains will break and the doors will open,'' the pastor said from his new home in Austin, Texas. By September 2024, he had spent nine months behind bars. With 12 other Nicaraguan members of the Texas-based evangelical Christian organization Mountain Gateway, he faced charges like money laundering and illicit enrichment. Just like them, other faith leaders had been imprisoned during a crackdown that organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, have said are attacks on religious freedom. Orozco thought his innocence would eventually surface. So when the U.S. government announced that it had secured his release along with other political prisoners, he wasn't completely surprised. 'That's when I understood,' the pastor said. ' God was telling me he would act through the United States.' In the hours following the announcement, 135 Nicaraguans were escorted to Guatemala, where most sought paths to settle in other countries. Why did Nicaragua imprison religious leaders? Tensions between President Daniel Ortega and Nicaraguan faith leaders began in 2018, when a social security reform sparked massive protests that were met with a crackdown. Relations worsened as religious figures rejected political decisions harming Nicaraguans and Ortega moved aggressively to silence his critics. Members of Catholic and Evangelical churches have denounced surveillance and harassment from the government. Processions aren't allowed and investigations have been launched into both pastors and priests. CSW, a British-based group that advocates for religious freedom, documented 222 cases affecting Nicaraguans in 2024. 'Religious persecution in Nicaragua is the cruelest Latin America has seen in years,' said Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer who keeps a record of religious freedom violations. 'But the church has always accomplished its mission of protecting human life.' Spreading the gospel Orozco was the first member of his family to become evangelical. He felt called to the ministry at age 13 and convinced relatives to follow in his footsteps. He began preaching in Managua, urging different churches to unite. His experience became key for Mountain Gateway's missionary work. Founded by American pastor Jon Britton Hancock, it began operating in Nicaragua in 2013. CSW had warned that religious leaders defending human rights or speaking critically of the government can face violence and arbitrary detention. But Hancock and Orozco said their church never engaged in political discourse. While maintaining good relations with officials, Mountain Gateway developed fair-trade coffee practices and offered disaster relief to families affected by hurricanes. By the time Orozco was arrested, his church had hosted mass evangelism campaigns in eight Nicaraguan cities, including Managua, where 230,000 people gathered with the government's approval in November 2023. An unexpected imprisonment Orozco and 12 other members of Mountain Gateway were arrested the next month. 'They chained us hand and foot as if we were high-risk inmates,' he recalled. 'None of us heard from our families for nine months.' The prison where he was taken hosted around 7,000 inmates, but the cells where the pastors were held were isolated from the others. The charges they faced weren't clarified until their trial began three months later. No information was provided to their relatives, who desperately visited police stations and prisons asking about their whereabouts. 'We still had faith this was all a confusion and everything would come to light,' Orozco said. 'But they sentenced us to the maximum penalty of 12 years and were ordered to pay $84 million without a right to appeal.' Preaching in prison Fasting and prayer helped him endure prison conditions. Pastors weren't given drinking water or Bibles, but his faith kept him strong. 'The greatest war I've fought in my Christian life was the mental battle I led in that place,' Orozco recalled. Guards didn't prevent pastors from preaching, so they ministered to each other. According to the pastor, they were mocked, but when they were released, a lesson came through. 'That helped them see that God performed miracles,' he said. 'We always told them: Someday we'll leave this place.' Molina said that several faith leaders who fled Nicaragua have encountered barriers imposed by countries unprepared to address their situation. According to the testimonies she gathered, priests have struggled to relocate and minister, because passports are impossible to obtain, and foreign parishes require documents that they can't request. But Orozco fared differently. He shares his testimony during the services he leads in Texas, where he tries to rebuild his life. 'I arrived in the United States just like God told me,' the pastor said. 'So I always tell people: 'If God could perform such a miracle for me, he could do it for you too.'' Laymen were targets too Onboard the plane taking Orozco to Guatemala was Francisco Arteaga, a Catholic layman imprisoned in June 2024 for voicing his concerns over Ortega's restrictions on religious freedom. 'After 2018, when the protests erupted, I started denouncing the abuses occurring at the churches,' Arteaga said. 'For example, police sieges on the parks in front of the parishes.' Initially, he relied on Facebook posts, but later he joined a network of Nicaraguans who documented violations of religious freedom throughout the country. 'We did not limit ourselves to a single religious aspect,' said Arteaga, whose personal devices were hacked and monitored by the government. 'We documented the prohibitions imposed on processions, the fees charged at church entrances and restrictions required inside the sanctuaries.' Arteaga witnessed how police officers detained parishioners praying for causes that were regarded as criticism against Ortega. According to CSW, the government monitors religious activities, putting pressure on leaders to practice self-censorship. 'Preaching about unity or justice or praying for the general situation in the country can be considered criticism of the government and treated as a crime,' said CSW's latest report. Building a new life Prison guards also denied a Bible to Arteaga, but an inmate lent him his. It was hard for him to go through the Scripture, given that his glasses were taken away after his arrest, but he managed to read it back-to-back twice. 'I don't even know how God granted me the vision to read it,' said Arteaga, who couldn't access his diabetes medicine during his imprisonment. 'That gave me strength.' He eventually reunited with his wife and children in Guatemala, where he spent months looking for a new home to resettle. He recently arrived in Bilbao, Spain, and though he misses his country, his time in prison shaped his understanding of life. 'I've taken on the task, as I promised God in prison, of writing a book about faith,' Arteaga said. 'The title will be: 'Faith is not only believing.'' ____ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Telegraph
‘This is not our war' – Iranians in Britain pray for downfall of regime
Tortured daily by captors who threatened to rape his daughter, Mass still remembers the 39 brutal days he spent in an Iranian jail cell. Christian convert 'Mass', who did not want to give The Telegraph his full name, was already living dangerously as a journalist under the Islamic Republic regime when he accused the Sept 11 attackers of starting 'the third world war'. He was arrested and thrown in jail. 'It was 39 days but it was non-stop. Two or three people would come into my cell. They would punch me, they would torture me,' the 65-year-old said. He would go on to require four years of treatment for PTSD. Mass is one of many living in exile – unable to return to his home country for fear of the risk it would pose to his life – who hope the scenes of missiles being traded between the Islamic Republic and Israel could lead to the fall of the 'Mullah' regime. Speaking from his home in London, he said he was initially concerned about the strikes, but soon realised it could actually spell the beginning of the end of his exile in Britain. He added: 'Thinking of my people in that situation, it was very sad news. But later on I came to see it as good news. I firmly believe that given the current pressure from Israel and the international community, the continuation of the regime is no longer possible.' Now he fears those upholding Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 's regime will cause 'considerable damage' to their own people, by hunting down dissidents who criticise it on social media, before they are displaced. There are thought to be more than 114,000 British-Iranians living in the UK today, with many fleeing since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Mass hasn't seen his home country in 16 years, since his own arrival at Gatwick Airport in 2009. During his imprisonment, accused of being a spy and an apostate for Islam, he remembers being told his daughter would be raped if he did not 'help' his captors. He only managed to escape after being given a period of house arrest to recover from a three-day-long coma caused by his month in the Iranian prison. While outside, he was able to book a trip to Paris to see his sister, before going on to Dubai and finally to London. 'It is my dream to return to Iran,' he said. 'Every night I think 'one day I will go back to my country, go back to my childhood home, my family'.' He believes the Iranian population are in their own kind of imprisonment, under their tyrannical rulers. 'The Mullah regime is just thinking about itself,' he says. 'They are just thinking about the Islamic ideology and they are not thinking about the people, country, land – not at all.' Mass said there would be no appetite among Iranians to fight against an enemy state. 'I don't think my people will be happy to fight against Israel, because they hate the regime,' he said. 'They've hated it for 47 years. 'I am talking to my family and friends. Some live very close to where the bomb killed some of the [Iranian commanders]. They say this is just one way for the regime to fall.' It is the same view held by highly ambitious Ellie Borhan, who came to the UK to study aged 25. In Iran she couldn't pursue her dreams, despite achieving top grades in mathematics, because she was a woman. Now in her 40s and a software engineer, Ms Borhan has not been able to return to Iran for the last few years because she's spoken out against the regime. 'This is not our war,' she said. 'We don't like war. Iranian people are just looking for peace. 'The problem is the Islamic Republic is keeping the people hostage and every time we have uprising after uprising they just kill more people inside Iran.' When Ms Borhan heard of Israel's strikes on Iran on Thursday night she suffered a sleepless night after failing to reach family and friends. 'I had two feelings. I can't express how difficult it was,' she said. 'In one way we are happy because we feel there is hope for a regime change now as there could be an opportunity for people inside Iran to uprise and finish it. But it can only be the Iranian people who will finish it.' 'Like someone breaking into your house' But Ms Borhan described the Israeli strikes as 'like someone breaking into your house', adding: 'We never wanted to have a foreign country come and change a regime for us, that's something that should be done by the people.' She was happy, however, to hear Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been killed in 'decapitation strikes' alongside Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the armed forces. Ms Borhan added: 'Hearing those commanders had been killed, I can't express how happy I was. But at the same time I was worried for my loved ones and for the people in my country. 'We want to get back Iran, but not as a destroyed country.' Becoming emotional, Ms Borhan said other activists still living in Iran had told her they were happy to die if it meant an end to the regime. 'People I spoke to inside Iran, who were not connected to Islamic Republic, they were extremely happy. It wasn't what I expected,' she said. 'People are dying inside Iran every day, they tell me, 'We can't live any more, we can't breathe any more',' Ms Borhan said through tears. 'Some are already thinking about ending their lives because they can't [pursue] their dreams,' she said. 'We all have these mixed emotions and we don't know how to deal with them.'
