A priest in Nicaragua was arrested following Mass on New Year’s Eve.

At least 14 priests, two seminarians and a Bishop have been arrested in recent days in the country ruled by left-wing dictator Daniel Ortega.

Fr. Gustavo Sandino, the pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows, was arrested on 31 December following Sunday Mass in the Diocese of Jinotega, Nicaragua.

In Managua, Fr. Fernando Téllez Báez, pastor of Our Lady of the Americas, was taken in the early hours a day earlier, and Fr. Jader Hernández, pastor of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd, the evening of 30 December.

Earlier in the year, Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos of Matagalpa was sentenced to 26 years in prison without due process.

Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that Nicaragua is moving “increasingly” away from the rule of law and “fundamental freedoms” by persecuting “political and indigenous leaders, members of the Catholic Church, activists, and journalists” with “repeated cases of arbitrary detention.”