«I saw a video in which my cathedral is practically surrounded by police, this is so sad», said Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua at a press conference in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, at the end of the Assembly of the Episcopal Council of Latin America (CELAM), reported Fides News Agency on May 18, 2019.
Cardinal Brenes, thus, wanted to launch an appeal to the Nicaraguan national police to avoid spreading more violence, expressing his regret at the fact that the police have surrounded the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua, in search of people who oppose the government.
The numerous families of Nicaraguan political prisoners organized a sit-in in front of the cathedral, to ask for justice after the news of the murder of Nicaraguan political prisoner of North American nationality Eddy Montes Praslin, in «La Modelo» prison, in unclear circumstances.
Hundreds of police officers surrounded the cathedral for hours before the sit-in, and witnesses claimed that several young people were persecuted or captured.
Cardinal Brenes reaffirmed that dialogue is «the only solution to solve the socio-political crisis in the country, the worst in recent decades».
The US embassy in Managua condemned the death of the US citizen and asked in an official way to «clarify the circumstances of what happened immediately».
