‘No one really knows’ whereabouts of Nicaragua’s Bishop Mata
Authorities claim he was released after being detained last week, but police have sealed his house and family have been unable to contact him.
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 as the Bishop of Estelí between 1988 and 2021. He is well known for his opposition to the Nicaraguan regime, especially during the 2018 protests in the country. In July 2018, the bishop’s car was hit by gunfire from members of a paramilitary group connected to the Nicaraguan regime as he was travelling to Managua, the country’s capital.
Mata was taken from a hospital on June 29, where he was undergoing a checkup related to his pacemaker, and brought to a regime prison, where he was held for several hours.
On July 4, the Nicaraguan regime published a statement, in which they claimed that Mata had returned to his home “in perfect condition,” after “a necessary inquiry on the origin of properties and family links that are incoherent with the priestly condition” of Mata.
“Mata has provided [authorities] with statements on different events that violate national laws… After returning with his residence, Bishop Mata acknowledged that he was treated in every moment with the due respect and consideration that characterizes Nicaraguan law enforcement.”
However, the statement does not say whether Mata has been able to contact his family, whether he is allowed to leave his residence, or whether he remains under investigation and, if so, on what specific charges.
A source close to the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference told The Pillar that “the police returned hours after they had taken Bishop Mata home, and his family lost contact with him. Some outlets have said he’s under house arrest, but no one really knows where he is, his family has no access to the house, which is surrounded by police.”
“He could be there, but it also may be the case that they’re just surrounding the house to make people believe he’s there, while he’s actually in El Chipote.”
Local outlet La Prensa said that several human rights activists had information that Mata was not at his house and have demanded a proof of life.
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The Nicaraguan regime had previously barred Mata from returning to his diocese and celebrating Mass there, but the retired bishop defied the ban, arriving in Estelí on Thursday, June 25, and celebrating Mass publicly on Sunday, June 28.
According to La Prensa, Mata asked for prayers for the “persecuted Church in Nicaragua, for Bishop Rolando Álvarez and Fr. Frutos Valle Salmerón” during Mass.
Fr. Frutos Valle Salmerón was appointed diocesan administrator in Estelí in 2022 after the imprisonment of Bishop Álvarez, who also served as the diocese’s apostolic administrator.
Valle Salmerón was then arrested and placed under house arrest at a local seminary in July 2024 after the Diocese of Estelí announced the ordination of three new priests, which regime authorities claimed had not been authorized by them.
A local source told La Prensa that several people had been arrested and interrogated alongside Mata on June 29.
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Nicaragua, a country of around 7 million people bordering Honduras and Costa Rica, is led by an authoritarian regime that dates back to 2007, when Sandinista Front leader Daniel Ortega, who served as president from 1979 to 1990, returned to power. The regime launched a crackdown on the Church following mass protests in 2018.
Since the start of the persecution against the Catholic Church, the Nicaraguan regime has forced the closure of dozens of Catholic TV and radio stations, the dissolution of the legal structures of religious congregations, Catholic universities, and Catholic foundations, and the seizure of their properties.
Several religious orders have been forced to leave the country, including the Jesuits, the Franciscans, the Missionaries of Charity, the Poor Clares, the Discalced Carmelites, and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
More than 250 clergy and religious have been forced into exile, including four bishops and almost one-fifth of the country’s priests.
The Diocese of Matagalpa has been hit particularly hard, losing over 60% of its clergy, including its bishop and most of its diocesan curia. The regime also seized the local seminary in 2025.
The embattled diocese was home to Bishop Rolando Álvarez, widely seen as one of the most stringent critics of Ortega. His criticism of the regime led to his arrest in August 2022, and his subsequent 25-year prison sentence on charges of conspiracy.
On November 12, 2024, the president of the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference, Bishop Carlos Herrera, OFM, was forced into exile after criticizing a pro-regime mayor during Sunday Mass in the Jinotega cathedral.
After beginning his prison sentence, Álvarez was exiled to Rome in January 2024 and has lived there ever since. Bishop Isidoro Mora of the Diocese of Siuna, who was detained after he mentioned Álvarez in a homily in December 2023, has also been in exile since January 2024.
Bishop Silvio Báez, OCD, auxiliary bishop of Managua, has been in exile since 2019, first in Rome and then in the United States, after receiving death threats from the Nicaraguan regime.