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Bishop Emeritus of Estelí, Monsignor Abelardo Mata, has remained the victim of an enforced disappearance since June 30, 2026, when he was abducted by the Police. Since his capture, there has been no information about his whereabouts or the conditions in which the 80-year-old Catholic prelate is being held.
A source connected to the Catholic Church confirmed to CONFIDENCIAL that Monsignor Mata “is not at his home, and we do not know where he is.”
Mata was initially detained by police on Monday, June 29, 2026, in retaliation for a Mass celebrated on Sunday, June 28, at the Church of the Holy Cross of Calvary in the city of Estelí, during which he asked the faithful to pray for the persecuted Catholic Church.
Monsignor Mata was left under police surveillance at his residence in the city of Tisma, in the department of Masaya. However, on June 30—according to the Church source—he was once again abducted by police officers.
“I spoke with a priest who is inside Nicaragua and is in direct contact with the family. They said he has not been brought home and that they are desperate and distressed because they know nothing about the bishop,” said attorney and researcher Martha Patricia Molina.
“The bishop,” she emphasized, “is not with his family, nor is he at the seminary. He is in the hands of the dictatorship.”
Another Priest Abducted
Police also arrested Father Francisco Morales, pastor of the Church of the Holy Cross of Calvary in Estelí, where Monsignor Mata presided over the Eucharist before being abducted. According to reports, paramilitaries arrived at the church to photograph the bishop during the service, listen to his homily, and “take pictures of the people who greeted him.” He, too, remains the victim of an enforced disappearance.
The authorities also detained Deacon Wilfred Arauz Rodríguez, who was released several hours later, Molina said.
The researcher stated that the situation makes it clear that under the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, “no one is allowed to speak.” Following the abductions of the bishop and the other clergy, “some religious activities in the Diocese of Estelí have been suspended due to the climate of uncertainty,” the attorney reported.
“The last time they were seen alive was in police custody,” Molina said, holding the Ortega-Murillo regime responsible for the physical safety of the missing religious leaders.
Calls for “Proof of Life”
US Senator Rick Scott demanded that the regime provide “proof of life” for Monsignor Mata, who he said had been “forcibly disappeared.” [Scott’s state of Florida has a large number of Nicaraguan diaspora and exiles.]
“His family still has no information about his whereabouts. He has a medical condition that requires immediate attention. The regime must immediately provide proof that Monsignor Mata is alive and release him immediately and unconditionally,” the senator wrote on social media.
Scott also said the regime must “put an end” to its repression of the Nicaraguan people and its “vicious attacks on religious freedom.”
“The level of force used against an 80-year-old religious leader is as shameful as it is absurd and cannot be tolerated,” Scott said.
Regime Targets the Church in Nicaragua
The recent actions against Bishop Mata are the latest example of the climate of repression in Nicaragua. In a joint statement, a coalition of nine Nicaraguan political and civil society organizations denounced that the “persecution of the Catholic Church remains ongoing.”
“Any act of harassment against Monsignor Mata constitutes an attack not only against him personally (…) It is part of a systematic policy of intimidation, harassment, and persecution directed against bishops, priests, religious men and women, and laypeople committed to their faith,” the organizations reiterated.
In March 2026, Rosario Murillo lashed out at critical priests and exiles who question her regime, accusing them of “serving the devil” and calling them “wanderers,” “traitors,” and people “filled with hatred” who, she claimed, seek to “harm” Nicaragua “from other lands.”
Monsignor Juan Abelardo Mata is well known for his outspoken criticism of the regime. He submitted his resignation as Bishop of Estelí on June 23, 2021, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75 under canon law and has served as bishop emeritus ever since.
Since 2018, he has denounced the persecution of the Church and publicly supported priests and bishops who were imprisoned and later exiled.
“They don’t even know how to lie anymore. The devil himself ends up entangled, and whoever follows the devil falls into the very trap he digs for others,” the bishop said in a 2020 interview with CONFIDENCIAL and the online program Esta Noche, which is broadcast online because of the television censorship imposed by the dictatorship.
In 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted him precautionary measures because of the “harassment and threats stemming from his position within the Catholic Church.” On July 15, 2018, after celebrating Mass in Managua, Monsignor Mata was traveling to Tisma when he was stopped by Ortega regime police officers and armed paramilitaries at a traffic circle in the city of Nindirí.
Diocese of Estelí Among the Hardest Hit by Repression
The report Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church, prepared by Molina, documents 81 attacks against the Diocese of Estelí since 2018. The study also notes that Estelí remains without a residential bishop, as do the dioceses of Matagalpa, Jinotega, and Siuna, due to the exile of other clergy.
“It is forced to function without a bishop and with only 42% of its clergy. This makes pastoral work difficult and places a heavier burden on the priests who remain active, carrying out the work of those who are in exile because of persecution, who have died, or who for one reason or another are no longer able to exercise their ministry in Nicaragua,” Molina said.
Among the main repressive actions against the Catholic Church are:
- Arbitrary detention of priests, bishops, and parish workers.
- Police surveillance and the presence of paramilitary forces during religious services.
- Bans on processions and religious activities outside churches. Molina’s study records 16,564 religious activities prohibited between 2019 and July 2025.
- Exile, expulsion, or denial of entry into the country for clergy and religious personnel.
- Confiscation of media outlets, religious houses, and other Church properties.
- Closure of religious congregations and Church-run social programs.
- Threats, smear campaigns, and hate speech directed against members of the clergy.
The 2025 Report on Religious Freedom in the World by the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) concluded that the Nicaraguan regime’s hostility toward churches “intensified” that year, “seriously violating” this fundamental right.
