(ZENIT News / Managua, 10/23/2025) – The Archdiocese of Managua reported the death, on October 12, of Father Mario de Jesus Guevara Calero, Spiritual Director of the Major Seminary of Nicaragua. He was 66 years old. Russian citizen Elis Leonidovna Gonn doused him with acid on December 5, 2018, while he was hearing confessions in the Cathedral of Managua.
The priest underwent surgeries and treatments during his recovery. He publicly expressed his forgiveness to the woman who attacked him, when the dictatorship intensified its repression against the Catholic Church.
Elis Leonidovna was convicted in 2018, but in August 2019, the Nicaraguan dictatorship released her and expelled her from the country. In June 2024, Gonn said she had been «in love» with Murillo and that, because of this unrequited love, she tried to damage her «reputation» by attacking Father Mario Guevara. The dictatorship always denied Gonn’s release and claimed she was imprisoned in the women’s prison «La Esperanza.» On May 4, 2025, Gonn revealed her illegal entry into Nicaragua in August 2024. She was arrested again, released, and expelled from the country. She expressed her regret for having supported the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, in whose service she allegedly committed the criminal act.
Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, said on X about the priest’s illness that, «in these last months, he was able to endure Calvary and his ailments like a road of bitterness, but when I had the opportunity to visit him in the hospital, and sometimes in the Seminary at the end, he was smiling. And, above all, I was impressed to see near his bed his Liturgy of the Hours and the Holy Rosary in his hands.» The Cardinal emphasized that Father Guevara «preached to us not with grand words, but with his life, his simple life, but with tremendous power. And what was that power if not the person of Jesus Himself?» Elis Gonn was sentenced to eight years in prison in Nicaragua for the crime against the priest, but she only served eight months in prison. The dictatorship freed her and sent her to Russia, claiming that she was «sedated» and against her will.
