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Nicaraguan human rights activists have raised alarm over the welfare and whereabouts of Bishop Abelardo Mata. The bishop was briefly detained by the Nicaraguan regime on June 29 and while authorities claim he was returned home later that day, no one outside the security forces has been able to establish contact with him since.

According to Church sources and local human rights advocates, Mata’s residence has been surrounded by police since June 29, and neither his relatives nor other close contacts have been able to see or speak with him. The lack of independent confirmation of his whereabouts has fueled fears that he is either being held under de facto house arrest or has been transferred to another detention facility.

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Eighty-year-old Bishop Abelardo Mata, SDB, emeritus Bishop of Estelí, was held in police custody for several hours on June 29 after celebrating Mass in his former diocese on the previous Sunday, during which he asked the faithful to pray for the persecuted Church in the country and for the diocese’s Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who has lived in exile in Rome since 2024 after spending more than a year in prison on conspiracy charges.

Mata served

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